


Road Trip

by MariusAngelicaSue



Series: An Unlikely Trio [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: And not in an inappropriate way, Background Relationships, Enemies to Friends, F/F, Gen, Insipired by that joke letter about Mercy and Roadhog, Mercy really likes roadhogs illegal medicine, Multi, established relationships - Freeform, god it's hard to write dialogue scenes for roadhog if the other person isn't a pyromaniac maniac, in a sciency way, some angst sprinkled on to give it flavor, this friendship is taking longer to write than I thought damn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-03-07 21:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 80,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13443306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariusAngelicaSue/pseuds/MariusAngelicaSue
Summary: "The area was mostly dark, with some light shining in through a crack up above. It appeared to be night time though, as a pale, weak light was the only thing shining through and lightening up the surrounding area. It seemed that she’d fallen into some sort of ditch, or cave with a small crack at the top.And that was when she noticed a large, still figure in the moonlight, and she realized that she wasn’t the only one who had fallen down.Angela quickly moved over to the body, checking for a pulse and putting her ear against his chest. She waited for a moment. Two moments.And suddenly, just like that, she heard it.A heartbeat."A world-renowned doctor and an infamous criminal end up alone in the middle of Eichenwalde forest, and everyone's looking for them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just like taking experiences from the game and try and fit it into a story.  
> This fic’s experience: getting hooked off of a cliff along with a falling Roadhog. 
> 
> HOpeYaLLeNjoY

Angela had been walking through the hallways of Watchpoint: Gibraltar, filing through a stack of Amelie’s old medical reports so focused on it that she didn’t notice the large shape in the hallway until she crashed into him. 

Winston turned around, surprise in his face as papers scattered around him, and gave Angela a sheepish grin. 

“Oh, Angela! You’re just the person I needed to see.”

She gave no reply, picking up the papers. Winston stood there for a moment in silence as she worked, before she heard him cough. “Here, let, let me help with that.”

He hesitantly began helping Angela with the papers, and she had to resist the urge to laugh; it was difficult to get frustrated at the good-natured scientist for long. She grinned to herself, and looked up at him. “What is it you wanted to talk about, Winston?”

He let out a deep, gravely sigh, and Angela felt herself the humor drain out of her as her body tensed.  _ Oh boy, what’s the issue? Was it a Talon attack? Did a mission go wrong? Was someone hurt? _

Winston looked over to the side. “It’s, uh….the Junkers again.”

Angela felt her stomach sink.  _ Oh dear.  _

It seemed as if it was going to be an interesting day. 

 

—

 

“The Junkers have recently been spotted robbing another bank recently, out in Germany. We managed to track them down, and it seems that they’ve made a hideout in Eichenwalde.” 

Winston pointed to the map, zooming in to reveal the ruins of the old castle. Angela looked over to Reinhardt, who’d adopted a grim expression at the sight. 

“Many of my friends died there,” he murmured, his voice scratched. “And they are using it to hide their money?”

Winston nodded. “Not just from their recent heist, it looks like they’ve been moving some of the money from their past few city visits there. We’re going to move in there tomorrow, catch them while they’re lying low.”

Overwatch had only recently been reactivated, and as such the members in the organization were limited. As such, the meeting room wasn’t particularly crowded, with only Amelie, Angela, Reinhardt, Winston, D.va, and Lucio. Each of them were leaning in on the table, looking over the display that Winston had set up. 

“So our main goal is to retrieve the money?” Amelie spoke up, her sharp eyes darting across the images, likely looking for good sniper spots. 

“Not just that, Amelie. You’ve told us yourself that Talon’s been targeting the two Junkers for a long time.”

The sniper nodded. “Yes. Although, I never found out why before I left.”

Winston gave a small smile, showing off a few of his large teeth. “Well, we’ve managed to get a bit of intel and it seems Talon’s after Junkrat specifically. He’s discovered the location of an incredibly valuable ‘treasure’, and Talon’s trying to find it.”

“What’s this special ‘treasure’, though?” Angela cut in.

Winston shrugged. “That I’m not too sure of. It could be a weapon, maybe classified information, maybe something else. All that we know is that it’s important, and Talon wants it. We’re going to try and take Junkrat in with this mission, along with the money.”

Amelie crossed her arms. “So all shots on him must be non lethal?” 

A nod. She narrowed her eyes. “But what about the pig?”

“We’ll probably arrest him too; harming him too badly would probably result in Junkrat being uncooperative.”

Angela was likely the only one who noticed Amelie’s shoulders sink in relief at that comment. 

Winston pointed to the screen again. “It’s going to be a small team. Reinhardt knows the location, so he’s going to help guide us through in case the Junkers try anything. D.va is going to rush them, taking care of Junkrat’s explosives. Mercy,” she straightened up at being addressed.

“Yes?”

“You’re going to stick to D.va, make sure Roadhog doesn’t destroy her mech. Lucio’s gonna make sure Rein can keep up with you guys.”

He turned to face Amelie. “Widow, your job will be the most important.”

She raised her eyebrow at the comment. “The Junkers work best up close. You’re going to set up behind them, keeping up pressure and letting the others move in. You need to make sure you keep your distance, though; Roadhog’s an amazing hooker. If he manages to catch you, you’re done.”

Amelie glanced to the side, putting a hand to her mouth and loudly clearing her throat. Angela held back a snicker at Amelie’s reaction, and everyone in the room had a different expression as they struggled to keep professional. Winston didn’t seem to notice the misstep, though. “Alright, that’s all. Get yourselves ready to move out tonight, we’ll be striking them tomorrow morning.”

 

—

 

Angela found Amelie in the shooting range, as expected; she often tried getting in some last minute practice before a mission. She looked over at the dummy that Amelie was shooting at: bullet holes spread across the limbs, but nothing even close to the torso. 

She looked over at Amelie, who seemed to have tuned out her surroundings, firing over and over. Angela let her empty her clip before speaking up. “Amelie.”

No reply as the gun was reloaded. The firing resumed. “Amelie.”

Still nothing. “ _ Amelie. _ ”

Another clip emptied. “Amelie!”

Still no reply. She began firing again. 

Angela let out a deep sigh. She quietly began to tiptoe closer and closer to the sniper, feeling herself flinch a little at the loud cracks of the rifle.  _ If Talon hadn’t altered her ears to withstand the sound, I’d have tracked Moira down myself and strangled her.  _ She thought to herself. 

She stayed quiet, though, leaning towards Amelie until she was right next to her ear. “Oh,  _ Amelie _ ,” she sang quietly. 

Amelie’s head snapped towards her immediately, her eyes wide. “Oui?”

Angela felt herself chuckle, leaning back agin. “I’m glad I finally got your attention.” 

Amelie furrowed her eyebrows. “How long were you calling me?”

“Only about a minute. I was yelling, though.”

Amelie sighed. “I’m sorry, you know I don’t mean to ignore you.”

Angela’s expression softened, putting a hand on Amelie’s shoulder and squeezing it. “You’re stressed. Do you want to do some breathing exercises?”

Amelie smiled, sighing. “I’ve already done some, and it helped a little. But I just can’t stop imagining you, flying through a bunch of homemade explosives, dodging scrap metal, and all in an unstable castle. I need to make sure my aim’s not off for this.”

Angela looked over at the dummy. “Roadhog’s much bigger than that, you know. I doubt you’ll miss much with him.”

“I do. I’m practicing with the rat right now. And I’ll need to practice with the pig, too. I have to avoid hitting the gut; you heard the monkey, it’ll all be non lethal.”

Angela rolled her eyes. “I know you’re still mad at him for electrocuting you those couple of times, but I thought you agreed you’d stop calling him that.”

“Yes, you’re right. I apologize. You heard Winston, Junkrat has to be able to cooperate with us.”

Angela looked back at the “Roadhog” dummy: it was a normal dummy, except a large circular target was attached to its body, the arms and legs barely sticking out from behind it. “You know, I wouldn’t worry about hitting the stomach.”

Amelie raised an eyebrow. “And why is that?”

“I’ve researched the Junkers. Every report has stated that Roadhog’s got his hands on some illegal medicine, and it’s extremely powerful,” She looked off in the distance. “Some people even testified seeing gunshot wounds closing in a matter of seconds, right before their very eyes.”

“Careful,” Angela could hear the humor in Amelie’s voice. “We agreed you’re only allowed to orgasm about medical things in your office, and I’d rather not clean the range right now.”

Angela’s cheeks began to warm. “I’m not ‘going to have an orgasm’, I’m just displaying a natural curiosity about the world’s wonders.”

“Yes, and I doubt that Roadhog’s going to survive that ‘natural curiosity’.”

“Oh, please. If things go right he’s not even going to see his medicine vanish.”

That sparked a genuine laugh from Amelie. Angela felt herself grin at the sound.

Amelie took a deep breath, a smile still on her face. “I suppose you’re right, Angie. After all, who else is as stealthy as you?”

Angela grinned. “Still feeling stressed from the mission?”

Amelie shrugged. “A little, but it’s better. After all, it’s five against two, it’s certainly not going to be our hardest mission.”

Angela patted her back. “Still going to keep practicing, though?”

“Certainly, I don’t need an excuse to practice.”

“Of course, how silly of me,” she giggled. 

 

—

 

“Well, isn’t this unnaturally quiet.”

Angela tapped at the comm on her ear. “It’s the same for you there?”

“Oui. I haven’t spotted the duo yet. Perhaps they are asleep?”

“Let’s hope so,” D.va’s voice cut in. “I want to get back to the base and finish beating my high score, I’m keeping the livestream waiting.”

The group returned to silence again, the only noises being the sound of Reinhardt’s armor shifting as he moved ahead of them. Angela looked over her shoulder at the dropship parked between some trees. She could only imagine seeing Tracer sitting back in the pilot chair, reading a book. It was probably the newest in that adventure series she’d heard her raving about. 

Static filled her ear, cutting off her thoughts. 

“Hold on, I believe I’ve found their location.”

“Really?!” Angela nearly flinched at the volume coming from Reinhardt, who was walking only a couple feet ahead of her. “Tell me where they are!”

“I hear speaking in the old castle. It seems they were expecting to find the armor there.”

Angela heard Reinhardt growl a little. She could only breathe a sigh of relief, grateful that they had already retrieved the armor months ago. 

“I will stand by, tell me when you’re ready to move in.”

Angela heard the sound of electronic music behind her, and she felt a familiar energy course through her. “Alright, let’s get there!” Lucio laughed as their movement began to quicken. 

As they moved past the first gate, the group began quietly discussing among themselves an attack plan, and Angela began twisting the staff in her hands restlessly. They were about to pass under an old, ruined bridge when Angela heard Amelie give a quiet gasp. 

“Wait, non! Get out of there, they’ve set up-!”

The comm was suddenly cut off when Angela heard a large explosion crack above her, and felt rubble begin to fall on them. She barely had time to react before D.va’s pink mech painfully slammed into her side, making her roll out of the way of the rubble. She quickly sat up again to see the bridge that was above them completely collapsed, and the others out of sight. “Reinhardt!”

At that yell, a bit of the rubble moved aside and revealed a straining Reinhardt holding up his shield, dozens of boulders lying on top of it. Lucio was crouching next to him, a bit shaken but otherwise fine. Angela gave herself a moment to feel relieved before she turned towards the ruined front gates of the castle in anger. “Why those little-!”

“I’m sorry, my warning was too late,” Angela saw a slim figure on top of a tower in the distance stand up, a hand to her ear. “I overheard them talking about the mines they’ve set in this area, please be careful where you step.”

Angela heard a growl behind her. “How dare they desecrate this place! Don’t they know how many brave soldiers died here?!” She looked back to see Reinhardt shaking the boulders off of his shield and climbing out of the rubble. 

A manic giggling echoed from the entrance to the castle. Everyone turned their gaze towards the source, and saw the ambers and smoke coming from Junkrat’s hair long before they saw the person. 

“Knew these dumb fucks would come following us, didn’t I, Road? Want the money, do ya? Shame our welcoming gift didn’t kill you as spectacularly as we hoped!”

The two criminals stepped outside into the light, and Angela felt herself starting to get nervous. The postures of the two was relaxed, as if a battle against five with only two was going to be a breeze.  _ If they’ve had the time to set up a trap like that, who knows what else they’ve got up their sleeves.  _ “Be careful, we don’t know where they’ve put up their mines,” she murmured, glancing at the bridge between them and the criminals. “Although I can guess they’ve got some to collapse that bridge, too.”

“Well then, let’s stop them before he pulls out another detonator.” 

A crack split the air, and Angela saw Junkrat lurch a little before sitting up again. Except this time, his wooden peg leg (Angela could barely imagine Satya’s reactions whenever she heard about it) was partially broken, a bullet hole having ripped through it. 

“Agh! So you guys brought the spider bitch too, eh?” Junkrat yelled, before leaning towards Roadhog and whispering something to him. The Junker simply replied by tilting his head a little and nodding. Junkrat’s face lit up, and he immediately grabbed a detonator out of his pocket and pressed it. Another explosion split through the air along with a scream, and Angela whipped her head around to see a plume of flame burst from the tower she saw Amelie on. “Widowmaker!” 

“Do-t worry a-ut me! I’ll-e fine!” Amelie’s voice cut in and out of static, and Angela saw Amelie standing up again, although the stance was a little shaky. 

The area erupted into chaos after that. D.va quickly began moving in, and Angela was forced to follow her. Her senses soon felt overwhelmed as she continued dodging fire and bullets, but she kept her focus, carefully balancing everyone’s health.  _ We’re winning, you can do this, you’ll be fine. _

In hindsight, she was probably just tempting fate with that thought, because the moment it popped into her head loud cracks erupted around her, and she felt the ground below her rumble and shake. She looked over, and saw great columns of smoke coming from the edges of the bridge they were on, and cursed inwardly.  _ They actually detonated the explosives on the bridge they’re on?! What are they, insane?!  _ Before she could answer her own question, she saw the cracks spreading from the edges of the bridge, and saw a few holes were forming. The bridge was crumbling, sure, but it they still had about thirty seconds before the whole thing collapsed _. Looks like the goal was just instability, rather than complete suicide.  _ She groaned.  _ I guess they’re slightly sane. _

And their dumb plan seemed to be working; Reinhardt was having trouble staying on his two feet with the weight and rockets of his armor throwing off his movement a little. It seemed to be enough, because once Roadhog saw that his hook wouldn’t pass through the shield, he began heading closer, his shotgun at the ready. Angela quickly pulled out her pistol, hoping to get a few shots on him and stop him from moving any closer to Reinhardt.

But she barely heard a yell of warning from Lucio before the Junker suddenly jerked to the side, towards the edge of the crumbling bridge. Angela guessed that had pushed him back with the sonic gun, although its force wasn’t nearly as strong as other times (although she’d guess that it had to do with weight rather than power). Roadhog began to trip over the edge, and Angela had a moment to think of how they were supposed to keep the mission non lethal before the glare of reflected light entered her vision and she felt pain course through her. 

Roadhog’s meat hook had grabbed on to her, its spikes stabbing into her back, and before Angela could process the tingling sensation spreading from her wounds, she was suddenly jerked towards Roadhog, dragging across the concrete as he fell over the edge. The pistol slipped from her hands, and she desperately grabbed at the stone bricks to try and get away, but in an instant the stone was gone, and she was floating, air all around her. The hook still stubbornly held onto her hip, and when she looked down at the Junker at the other end of the chain, all she could see was the dark, soulless goggles staring back at her. 

As the ground below them quickly began to approach, Angela swore that she heard Amelie’s voice screaming before it was drowned out by the snapping of branches and the splashing of water. 

And just like that, everything went dark. 

  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Hana stared down at the dense, evergreen forest, horror itching at the edge of her senses, but she held it down. The moment Roadhog and Mercy touched the forest, it was almost as if they had been swallowed up by the branches, vanishing in an instant. She desperately scanned her eyes over the area, trying to see a hint of Mercy’s bright Valkyrie armor, but saw nothing. She was so focused in searching that she didn’t even hear the sniper’s grappling hook swinging in, and the signature clicking of her heels. 

“Idiot!” Hana was snapped out of her trance, whipping around to see Widowmaker gripping Lucio by the collar. “Even if that pig hadn’t grabbed Angie, Winston explicitly told us not to kill either of them!”

Lucio looked frightened, cautiously stammering out answers about how Roadhog was getting too close to Reinhardt, when Hana noticed a figure shakily getting up. 

Hana was already back in her mech when Widow was forming a retort.

“You could’ve just pushed him away instead of towards the cliff! Besides, you don’t think Reinhardt can’t take care of himse-“

Widowmaker was abruptly cut off when Hana’s mech smashed into her, pushing her out of the way of Junkrat’s barrage of grenades. Hana quickly deleted the objects—they were easy compared to what she’d done before—and charged towards the Junker, who squawked in alarm. Her mech crashed into him, slamming him against the wall behind him. The others quickly caught up with Hana, their guns aimed at Junkrat, who was glaring at all of them. 

“You bastards, trying to kill Roadie like that!” He scowled, his grenade gun still held up at the ready (although Hana knew he hadn’t reloaded it yet).

_ He’s already dead,  _ Hana thought—and was extremely tempted to say—but she kept quiet. “You’re coming with us, Junkrat. Now, where did you hide that money?”

Junkrat scowled. “Like hell I’d tell ya!”

Hana glanced back at the others.  _ We’ll get it later,  _ Lucio mouthed, and Hana nodded; they had more pressing matters to attend to. 

“We’ll take him back to the ship, and go searching for Angela,” the others all gave noises of agreement, and Hana looked back at Junkrat. “You. Drop all your weapons.”

Junkrat gave no response, simply glaring at them all (and especially Hana), but after what seemed like a moment of thought, he reluctantly threw his grenade launcher to the ground. 

And his mines.

And his explosive tire. 

And his bear trap. 

And all of his grenades. 

And the dynamite. 

And the ridiculous amount of detonators. 

And still his arsenal continued to build. 

Hana looked down at the impressive pile with a raised eyebrow. “You sure that’s it?”

“To be honest, I’m surprised he’d managed to hide even that much from us already,” Widowmaker commented, her eyebrows raised. Her gaze on the junker was intense, and he shrank a little under it. “But I think we’ve hit his limit. Come, let’s get back to the ship.”

 

—-

 

Tracer sat up in surprise at the sight of their group walking in, and Hana honestly couldn’t blame her: here she was, sitting and waiting for a normal mission to be over, and in comes the group, covered in soot and grim faces and noticeably missing a couple of members. She quickly blinked over in front of the group, a worried expression on her face. 

“What happened?”

Reinhardt sighed. “These Junkers were more prepared than we expected, and during our battle, Roadhog fell off the bridge and carried Mercy with her.”

Tracer’s eyes widened and she put a hand over her mouth, before it suddenly solidified, and she blinked back to the cockpit. “Well then come on, let’s get searching while we’ve still got the light!”

As the ship began taking off the ground, everyone moved to get in their respective seat, with Reinhardt buckling in the handcuffed Junkrat (who was sending out a spew of obscenities and insults, just as strongly an hour before; it had taken a while to reel Junkrat in, even without his weapons).

Hana though, she didn’t step out of her mech. She walked up to look up at Tracer, who looked back. “Why aren't you buckled in, love?”

Hana looked over at the door. “You guys can search from the air, but how about I fly down and search on the ground? That way we’ve got more eyes for the search, and you don’t have to land again to pick them up.”

Tracer’s eyes brightened. “That’s a great idea!” She turned to look at the rest of the group. “Is everyone buckled in? I’m going to open the door to let D.va out!”

Hana turned around, and saw everyone strapped in and nodding (aside from Junkrat, of course). She quickly headed towards the door, which had begun slowly opening. She tried making her way out as quick as possible, in order to let Tracer close the door again. 

Hana began flying her mech over the trees, looking for any broken trees or bodies, when she realized that she was actually flying a little slower; it wasn’t a huge difference, but it was enough for Hana to notice. 

The thought was quickly followed by the sound of something hitting the top of her mech, and when she looked up she saw a long, purple ponytail and a pair of heels. 

“Widowmaker! What are you doing on my mech?!”

The sniper looked down at her with those piercing, golden eyes. “Being a second pair of eyes. Like you said, you can search the ground without forcing Tracer to land again. Well, as long as I hold on to your mech, so can I. Besides, I’d prefer if there was more than one person on the ground, looking.”

Hana raised an eyebrow, a small part of her being slightly annoyed at the footprints her mech was likely going to have (although considering the amount of bullet holes and other damages it got, it was a really stupid thought), before forcing in a grin. “Yeah, why not, I’ll be like a Yoshi!”

Widowmaker frowned. “I’m not sure if that really applies-“

Hana groaned. “Come on! Don’t argue with me here, didn’t you come down here to look for your girlfriend?”

Widowmaker chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Oui.”

“Alright then, let’s go!” And with that, Hana activated her boosters. Widowmaker almost fell off at the sudden movement, but luckily she had kept her grappling hook attached. 

A small map appeared on Hana’s screen, showing their current location, as well as that of the castle. She narrowed her eyes at it.  _ If Mercy fell off the bridge  _ there, she pointed inwardly.  _ Then they’re probably around the river  _ here. She quickly turned her mech, and had to hold herself from laughing when she heard another thump above her mech, as well as a string of curses in French. 

Mercy may have “fixed” Widowmaker, but it didn’t mean that Hana had to immediately forgive her for all of the deaths and chaos that she’d caused, so she reveled in these few moments of retribution. 

It didn’t take long for her to find the river again; with how much she had been staring down back at the bridge, she’d be surprised if the image wasn’t embedded in her mind (along with the sight of Mercy, her expression terrified and in pain, plummeting to her death). She stopped, observing the movement of the river, searching for blood stains, torn clothing, scrape marks in the dirt, any signs that someone—whether it be living or dead—had been there. 

“D.va! Look!” 

Just at the edges of her screen, Hana saw the pointing hand of Widowmaker. When she followed it, she saw it: dozens of broken branches, with what seemed to be the center of impact a tree snapped right in half. She cautiously began moving her mech towards the mess, fearfully wondering if she’d find a splatter of blood and guts. Fortunately, it seemed that Widowmaker thought she was moving too slow, and simply jumped off and ran ahead. “There’s nothing here,” she called back. 

At that, Hana sped up again, and sure enough the sniper was right. She craned her head to see a little further, and saw that there was a trail of broken branches and crushed leaves following it. 

The two of them simply looked at each other, nodded, and began following the path created by what they assumed was Roadhog. As they traveled through it, Hana couldn’t help but notice how the land moved downward.  _ They must have rolled down here. _ She quickly had to shut out the thought of Mercy being pulled along by the hook as Roadhog rolled down the cliff, hitting trees and getting crushed under his weight. 

“The path’s ended.” Hana was snapped out of the gruesome image to see that Widowmaker was ahead of her, and looking down at what seemed to be a drop off. Hana caught up looked down, and saw that the path seemed to stop at a cliff. Still, she didn’t even see a glimpse of white or yellow, or any sign of Mercy or the junker. 

“I can’t see any blood,” she offhandedly comment. 

Widowmaker snorted. “Someone can’t bleed enough for us to be able to see it at this distance.”

“Not if it’s not fatal,” Hana corrected, not even realizing what she was saying.

Widowmaker didn’t reply, and when Hana looked over, she saw an expression with a mixture of horror and anger. “Well, it’s not, it’s not going to be fatal.”

Hana shrugged. “I don’t know. It was a long drop, not even including this tumble. We might need to start assuming the worst.” 

“There’s no need for that!” Widowmaker’s sudden increase in volume actually made Hana flinch a little. “Why do you so easily assume death?”

“I’m just thinking realistically.”

“So am I! What, you don’t think I’ve never seen death? You don’t think I don’t know what exactly kills a person?”

Hana didn’t give a reply to that, and Widowmaker continued. “Come on, let’s keep looking.”

Hana quietly complied, and she stayed quiet for the rest of the search, even as it stretched till night. The way Widowmaker was acting; not only was it off putting considering the one that had worked for Talon would  _ never  _ express emotion like this, but it reminded her too many times of her experiences back at home. There’d be subordinates who’d refuse to believe that their friend was gone, especially when they were missing in action, and Hana always failed in convincing them that there wasn’t any hope. 

No, they had to learn that themselves by seeing the hard truth. It was the only way Hana had seen the message get across to them. 

So she didn’t argue with Widowmaker that night, knowing that she’d learn the same lesson soon enough. 

 

—

 

Hana yawned, exhausted from the mission; the team had continued searching until it was the middle of the night, when everyone agreed it had gotten too dark to keep looking. Now they were back in the base, Junkrat was in a jail cell, and Widowmaker went off to what Hana assumed would be Symmetra. 

Ever since Hana and Widowmaker had returned to the ship, saying that they couldn’t find anyone, Junkrat had gone silent, and he stayed that way for the rest of the night. He didn’t even respond when Reinhardt grabbed him again to take him to his cell, which made everyone start to wonder if he’d suddenly died, or at least gone into a coma or something. 

Tracer almost suggested asking Mercy for advice, but quickly stopped herself. 

Hana stopped by the kitchen to grab a cup of the blackest coffee there before retreating to her room, and turning on her console. After a few minutes of fiddling, she set up the livestream again, and gave a small wave to the camera. 

“Hey guys, D.va’s finally back in the house! Sorry it took so much longer than expected, the mission went a little haywire.”

And with that Hana resumed the game, focusing to surpass her high score. But with the thoughts of the mission and the lack of sleep grabbing at her mind, she found it hard to focus and she soon died; all that progress, lost. 

She sighed, looking down at the chat, which was filled with comments worrying about what she meant about the mission, asking if something had gone wrong, asking if everything was alright. 

Images of Mercy’s horrified expression as she slid across the stone bridge, desperately trying to grab on to something,  _ anything  _ to not get pulled over, filled her mind,

It was an expression that Hana was far too familiar with, and she’d joined Overwatch with the faint hope that she wouldn’t see it so much. 

And here she was, a mess after her first mission. How naive she was. 

She forcefully pulled a grin on her face and pulled her signature move, her fingers in a peace sign. “Hehe, don’t worry guys! The mission was a little scary at first, but it all turned out alright!”

And with that comment, she resumed the game, ignoring any more questions about the mission, and feeling thankful at how the caffeine was finally starting to kick in. 


	3. Chapter 3

Everything was dark, and all Angela could think of was how much she hurt all over. She could feel the sting of cuts across her body, as well as the dull throbbing of pain in her back—

And then it all came back to her. 

Angela’s eyes snapped open and she abruptly sat up, immediately regretting that when she cried out in pain. She tried slowing down her breathing, looking down at the injuries: it seemed that the hook had come loose already, and the wounds were now open and bleeding. Angela could practically feel the nanomachines in her bloodstream already working to try and fix the wound. 

But it wasn’t enough. 

Angela quickly began to look around, see if she dropped her staff anywhere, before she remembered how she’d swapped it out for her pistol. And if that was the case, then it was strapped to her back; a quick check showed she was right. 

Angela grabbed the staff and pointed it towards the dark red wounds in her armor. It was a little hard to hold, since the weight in the staff had been perfectly distributed to be held by two hands towards the center, but she managed. With shaking fingers, she pressed down on the button on her staff, and immediately felt relief course through her as a cold, numb feeling washed across her body. She stared down at the wound and watched as it slowly, but surely began to close. Once the wound had finally stopped bleeding, Angela turned the staff off again, and carefully sitting up; she’d be able to heal the rest on her own, now that she was no longer bleeding so much. 

Now that her mind wasn’t distracted with the pain, she was able to take in her surroundings. The area was mostly dark, with some light shining in through a crack up above. It appeared to be night time though, as a pale, weak light was the only thing shining through and lightening up the surrounding area. It seemed that she’d fallen into some sort of ditch, or cave with a small crack at the top. 

And that was when she noticed a large, still figure in the moonlight, and she realized that she wasn’t the only one who had fallen down. 

Roadhog wasn’t moving. He was lying on his back, his round belly illuminated and still. He wasn’t breathing. Angela cautiously stepped closer to him, and even in the moonlight she could see all of his injuries. He was covered in bruises, some pieces of wood were lodged in his body, and he was bleeding, a puddle already having spread underneath him. Part of his mask had broken off, and most of his yellow canisters had shattered and spilled out on the floor, mixing with the blood. 

_ My suit must have slowed down my fall,  _ she thought, horrified at the sight.  _ But it seemed that Roadhog didn’t have anything to stop him.  _

She took another step closer to the body; the mask still covered most of his face, but she could see the edge of his mouth, which was dipped in the pool of blood and medicine in front of him. 

Angela froze.  _ His mouth was in the medicine.  _ Did that mean he was trying to drink some, to save his life? Even with it mixed in with his blood?

_ And more importantly, did it work? _

Angela quickly moved over to the body, checking for a pulse and putting her ear against his chest. She waited for a moment. Two moments. 

And suddenly, just like that, she heard it. 

_ A heartbeat.  _

_ He’s alive!  _ Angela thought, panicked and quickly grabbing her staff. She thought back to how Winston talked about how the junkers couldn’t die if it couldn’t be helped. But even if he hadn’t given such an order, she doubted she’d just watch him die. 

_ I’ll heal him enough to keep him stable,  _ she thought, activating her staff and watching the golden light swirl around the body.  _ Make sure he’s not healthy enough to be a threat, but stable enough so that we’ll have more time to wait for the rescue party.  _

The light swirled around Roadhog, slowly beginning to close and clean his wounds. The pale flesh slowly began to gain some color as the body slowly began restoring some of its blood.Everything was quiet for a few seconds, with just the calming sound of the Caduceus staff at work. 

Suddenly, once the largest wound was about partially closed, Roadhog lurched, gasping for air. The movement was so sudden that Angela jumped back, but she kept her grip on the staff stable.  _ Don’t heal him too much, don’t heal him too much, don’t heal him too much,  _ she repeated to herself over and over again. 

Roadhog kept coughing, not even noticing Angela’s presence or what she was doing. He started desperately grabbing at his mask, putting a hand over the spot where it had broken. With his other hand began patting through his pockets, still lurching and coughing. Angela winced a little, knowing how painful the movement must be, considering that he likely had a pierced lung. 

It was then that Roadhog had found what was in his pocket, and pulled out a roll of duct tape. Angela furrowed her eyebrows in disbelief. 

_ Is he planning to close the wounds with that?!  _ She thought.  _ Do they  _ usually _ close their wounds like that?  _

She felt a little nauseous at the thought. 

But as Roadhog desperately began tearing off strips of the tape, she realized that it wasn’t for his wounds. Rather, he began patching up the hole on his gas mask. Angela tilted her head in confusion.  _ Can he not breath without it?  _ She thought back to his coughing, and wondered if he really did have a punctured lung.

Once the hole in the mask was completely covered, Roadhog began patting through his pockets again, although for what she couldn’t be sure. 

_ That’s enough,  _ She thought, looking at the large wound that had finally closed. She released her hold on the button, turning off the stream of healing. Roadhog was still coughing, but it wasn’t nearly as wretched as before, and his breathing had slowed down and relaxed considerably. His body was still covered in cuts and bruises, but they were minor compared to the large patches of skin that he’d just restored. She stared at one of the larger pieces of wood, which was embedded in his shoulder.  _ I’ll need to remove that eventually,  _ she thought to herself.  _ But it’ll need to be in better light. If I pull it out now, he’ll just start bleeding again. _

And the moment he said that, she saw a large hand reach up to the wood piece in question, and quickly tear it out, blood immediately beginning to pour out. Angela heard a loud shout of pain coming from him, and she quickly ran up to him.

“What?! No! What the hell are you doing?!”

Roadhog didn’t respond, still searching through his pockets and the area around him. Angela gritted her teeth in frustration.  _ Now I’ll have to heal him even more now.  _

But before she could even point her staff towards him again, Roadhog stopped, and finally pulled out what he’d been looking for. He pulled it towards his face, and in the light Angela managed to see what it was. It felt as if her heart had stopped beating for a moment when she saw it. 

It was a canister of his medicine. 

_ They hadn’t all broke.  _

“No, wait! Stop!” 

Roadhog inserted the canister into the remaining part of his gas mask, his belly rising as he inhaled deeply, and if Angela looked closely she could see yellow steam filling up in Roadhog’s goggles. 

But she wasn’t looking at his mask. Rather, she was looking at his  _ body _ . 

All the scars that had taken a solid minute to heal with her staff, were healing almost  _ instantaneously.  _ Scratches were vanishing in the blink of an eye, the wound he’d pulled the wood out of immediately stopped pouring out blood and closed up, leaving only a scar. Angela was dumbfounded. 

_ The reports were real.  _

_ The eyewitness reports weren’t exaggerating.  _

_ Dozens of serious wounds, all healed in an instant. _

She was practically reeling, but whether it was from excitement or shock she wasn’t sure. 

It was all so unbelievable that Angela didn’t even realize how soon it was all over. 

Roadhog sat up, almost completely healed, his back towards Angela, and she realized exactly what situation she was now in. 

Here she was, ten feet away from a dangerous criminal, who was almost good as new (her curious side itched to know how), and likely a long time away from a rescue, if the fact that it was night was any indication. 

Angela instinctively reached for her pistol, and felt her heart sink when she met nothing but air, and remembered how she’d dropped it back at the bridge. 

_ Great. Not only am I alone but I’m unarmed.  _ She glanced at Roadhog’s gun lying next to him.  _ And he seems to be the opposite in that regard.  _

She looked back up, and saw that Roadhog still hadn’t noticed her presence in the cave yet; He must’ve not heard her shouts of protest while she was healing him, or didn’t care. Either way, it was a chance for Angela to get out of there. 

She quietly began to step back, hoping that it’d be dark enough for her to blend in.  _ Maybe I can hide until he leaves or falls asleep, then make my way back to some civilization. _

Those thoughts and hopes were abruptly dashed when she felt her heel make contact with something, and it made a small rattling noise that echoed through the silent cave; she looked down and her stomach sank when she saw she’d kicked Roadhog’s chain, the hook only a couple feet away from her (it still had some dark spots where it’d stabbed Angela). The man in question froze, and immediately turned around, his goggles focusing in on her. And like always, his expression was unreadable (especially now that the broken part of his mask was covered once again with duct tape). 

Angela flinched at the gaze, fear coursing through her. She gave a shaky wave and smile, still stepping back out of instinct. “Hel-hello, uh,” she desperately ransacked through her memory, thinking back to all the reports. “Hi,  _ Mr. Rutledge. _ It’s, uh, it’s good to see you doing so much better so quickly.”

Roadhog didn’t give any response, instead pulling at the chain of his hook to reel it in, and picking up his scrap gun. He quietly stood up, and began making heavy steps towards Angela, grabbing some scrap metal from his pockets and shoving it into his gun. Angela felt panic course through her. 

“Hold on a second! We’re stranded out here, Mr. Rutledge. And from what I can guess, you’ve used your last can of your medicine there,” She lifted her staff, adrenaline keeping her voice steady. “I’ve got my staff, and it’s programmed to only work for me. And my healing’s no joke, Mr. Rutledge. After all, I did just  _ save your life.” _

Roadhog’s pace towards her didn’t slow during Angela’s negotiating, stopping in front of her and glaring down, his gun lifted and pointed straight at her. He made an imposing figure, being what seemed like three feet taller than she was. Angela felt herself getting desperate. 

“We have Jamison!” She yelled, a mixture of anger and fear powering her voice. “The rest of the team has likely captured him at this point. Killing me will not only anger his captors, but we can make negotiations about his and your freedom if you’re willing to work with me, at least for now.”

Roadhog didn’t move from his previous position, and Angela swore that if she hadn’t seen Junkrat speaking to Roadhog and him responding, she’d think he was deaf. It was possible that he was mute, though. 

“Look, Mr. Rutledge, I’m-“

“Roadhog.”

Angela looked up at the junker in surprise.  _ So he  _ can  _ talk!  _ His voice was extremely gravelly, and muffled behind the gas mask, but it was still understandable. She plastered a smile onto her face again. “Okay,  _ Roadhog,  _ I’m just as unhappy with this situation as you are, and from the looks of it a rescue party isn’t going to find us anytime soon, especially with where we are now. So,” Angela paused, really considering what she was about to say. “How about we work together for now, survive in this forest until we manage to get some help?” 

Angela reached out her hand, trying her hardest to prevent it from shaking as she stared at Roadhog’s scrap gun (that was  _ still  _ aimed at her). She waited for a few painful seconds, trying to keep her breathing steady and her posture relaxed, when she heard a deep, rough sigh come from the junker. He lowered his gun, and wrapped her hand with his own (Holy shit, it was  _ massive, _ her hand was barely a quarter of his palm). Angela felt hope spring from her like a fountain when she heard Roadhog speak up again. 

“Deal.”


	4. Chapter 4

Partnering up with the doctor was certainly an unexpected change of pace. 

Roadhog knew that she wouldn’t have acted the same as Junkrat, but he hadn’t expected something quite as different. Perhaps it was his own draining sanity that made him so surprised, getting far too used to Junkrat’s manic and off-the-wall personality. 

The most evident difference was that she knew when to  _ shut up.  _ When Roadhog didn’t provide a reply, she didn’t keep poking and pestering him until he responded, but was simply satisfied in traveling in silence. Hell, she didn’t even protest that much when he grabbed her and started climbing out of the ditch. If he had done that shit with Junkrat, it’d guarantee a couple of bite marks on his hand and an earful the whole way up. The change was so jarring that Roadhog almost felt uncomfortable with the amount of silence. 

He wondered if it was partially due to the fact that the doctor was currently unarmed and traveling with a man several heads taller than her (and also armed with a gun). He’d always towered over Junkrat, and this doctor was definitely shorter than him. 

Still, despite how much her silence was borderline _ therapeutic  _ after years with Junkrat, there were still a lot of things he didn’t like about her. 

The first was probably the prodding. True, she kept quiet most of the time, but whenever she did speak up, it was usually trying to interrogate Roadhog about his breathers. It made sense, considering her background, and she was polite about it, but that didn’t make it any less  _ annoying _ . It took him telling her that it only worked on him to make her stop constantly asking every ten minutes, and instead shift to every twenty minutes. 

The second problem was how skittish she was. Sure, she’d considerably relaxed after their deal was made, and the rest of her fear was impressively hidden, but Roadhog could sense enough of it coming off her, enough of it to make him keep looking back to make sure she hadn’t run off. Junkrat was many things—loud, annoying, reckless, and usually an idiot—but he was certainly loyal, at least when it came to Roadhog. The doctor, though, she seemed like she might bolt at the first chance she could get, leaving Roadhog on constant edge. 

And that lead into his third issue with her: she was right, at least to some extent. It was safe to assume that Junkrat had gotten caught by the rest of the doctor’s team—Junkrat was never particularly good at escapes, and especially silent ones—and killing the doctor certainly wouldn’t do anything to get him back. In fact, it was probably more counterproductive than anything, since Roadhog could probably use her as a good bargaining chip. Sure, she probably didn’t mean to imply it, but she certainly gave him the idea. 

It was a good plan, but they still had to deal with the more pressing issue first. He leaned over to look around at the lake that they had landed nearby. He thought about what would have happened if they’d landed in it, rather than rolling into the ditch. 

Probably wouldn’t have had to deal with all of those broken bones and the giant pieces of wood that had lodged themselves in him. They were a pain in the ass, even if it ended quickly after he took a breather. 

But on the other hand, he probably would have drowned. The doctor was pretty strong for her stature, but he doubted she could carry him out of the water. 

Roadhog looked back at her, thinking back to what had happened earlier that morning. Yeah, considering all of the possibilities, this was probably one of the better outcomes. 

He turned his head to look in front again, tilting it to look at the cliff by the lake. That seemed to be their best option, if the situation was about getting back to the castle. At the very least, it was a higher vantage point to see where they were and where they could go. He looked at the Doctor, who had been observing the area as well. But when she saw his gaze settle on her, he saw her posture stiffen a little. It made sense she was nervous around him (she  _ should  _ be), but the movement had been so subtle he’d almost missed it. 

This woman was good at hiding her emotions, good at deception. It was a very dangerous ability to Roadhog. 

He gestured towards the cliff, and she followed where he was pointing in surprise. “We’re going up there?” 

He nodded. 

She furrowed her eyebrows, holding a hand over her eyes to block out the sun as she craned her neck. “I understand why it’d be helpful, but how do you expect to get up there? It’d probably take a day or two to find a path upward, from what I can tell.”

“Only if we walk,” was the only response Roadhog gave, his grip tightening on his hook. He turned, and began walking towards the base of the cliff. The doctor quickly understood what he was implying, given by her noise of surprise as she did a double take.

“What-you’re simply planning on climbing the _face of the_ _cliff?!_ ”

“Yes,” Roadhog replied, a little annoyed. What else did she expect him to do?

“But, but do you even have the strength for that?! What if you fall?” she’d run up to his side, scrambling for answers. 

He simply lifted up his hook, showing its chain attached to the wheel on his waist. The doctor continued stammering, suddenly finding difficulty forming any sort of questions for a moment. 

“But, wait, what about me? Am I supposed to just find a path while you climb?” 

Roadhog rolled his eyes. “You’re going up the face too.”

She scoffed. “I don’t think I have the same strength as you do.” 

“No need.”

The doctor furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, before realization struck her eyes and her hands went to her chin. She gave a little hum, suddenly deep in thought. “I’m starting to see what you mean.”

Roadhog gave a sigh of relief. Her constant questions almost seemed like she was finding a way to avoid the entire situation, even if it was their fastest option. He supposed he couldn’t blame her for it, but it was still irritating at how roundabout she was acting. 

“So,” the doctor spoke up again. “While you’re climbing, I’ll fly up to you with my suit, and my wings can slow my fall so I can stay with you while you climb.” 

A smile started to split on her face as the plan became clearer in her mind. “And I can use my staff to increase your strength! This plan might actually work!”

Roadhog looked down at the doctor in surprise. He didn’t really know everything that her equipment did, and he certainly hadn’t guessed her suit had actual practical uses. To be honest, he’d thought the getup was more out of arrogance than anything remotely useful for a battlefield. 

The doctor noticed his staring, and her smile faded. “What? Is something wrong with the plan?”

Roadhog imagined him exerting himself, climbing the face of the cliff, with the doctor waiting at the bottom, seemingly about the “fly” up to him. He then saw her turning around, and vanishing into the forest once Roadhog was high enough up the cliff.

“We’re not doing that,” he growled. 

The doctor scrunched her face. “Why not? I’m sure it’ll work. Do you not trust my technology?”

“It’s not the technology,” he replied simply, grabbing her waist in one hand and lifting her up. She gave a little squawk of surprise. 

“Wha-hey! What are you doing?!” she struggled, trying to pry herself out of his grip. But she was barely able to move a finger, and Roadhog squeezed a little tighter to stop her squirming. She gave a small gasp, and he stared at her straight in the eyes. 

“I’m carrying you up this cliff, got it?” he growled. 

She certainly seemed tense in his grip, but her expression still showed defiance. “But what about my staff? Don’t you want me to help you climb?”

“You’ll still have two hands to hold it.”

The doctor chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Yes, but still-”

“This isn’t up for debate,” Roadhog sighed, placing his other hand on the base of the cliff. He looked over himself, thinking of what he could hold onto the doctor with: he’d rather not have the climb the cliff with one hand. 

He looked at his hook, and an idea came to him. He let some of the chain loose, the metal rattling as it hit the dirt, and began wrapping it around the doctor’s waist. She gave her usual round of protests, but at this point Roadhog had begun drowning it out; it was a very useful skill to have, after being with Junkrat for so long. After the chain was wrapped around a few times, he lifted up the hook and let go of the doctor, seeing how it held her. She didn’t seem particularly pleased, but at this point she saw she didn’t have much choice, and as such just kept glaring at him. Giving a grunt of satisfaction, Roadhog dug his hook into the stone (the doctor gave a small yelp of surprise, nearly hitting into the cliff from the motion), and began pulling himself upward. 

At first the climb was a little difficult, which wasn’t surprising. Even though the doctor realistically didn’t weigh him down much, his fresh wounds and scars made movement a little sore, and a part of him couldn’t help but pin it on her weight, as illogical as it was. However, the doctor soon pulled out her staff and pointed it at him, pressing a different part that he hadn’t seen her use before.

At first, the sight of the blue light coming out of her staff startled Roadhog, but the moment it reached him, he felt power coursing through him. The pains and exhaustion in his body were silenced immediately, as if it was put behind a soundproof wall and left to scream on its own. He started climbing much faster after that. 

After about ten minutes, the two of them had almost made it to the top of the cliff. The doctor had fallen silent a while ago, now only giving the occasional grunt if she bumped into the cliff. Roadhog worked slow and steady, making sure each grip was enough for his weight (he wasn’t a light man, after all). 

It seemed he’d miscalculated at some point. Either that, or the rock suddenly decided to let go off the cliff. Roadhog had been getting closer the top, when he let his foot take a step upward and slowly settle in on the indent in the cliff. 

As he lifted his hand to reach for another grip, the stone suddenly came undone, and he found himself quickly falling. He heard the doctor give a gasp of fear, and before he knew it he was hanging off the cliff, with his feet hanging freely, his lodged in hook the only thing supporting the two of them. 

The doctor quickly began struggling out of her chains as Roadhog strained to reach for a grip and stabilize himself. He carefully kept both hands on the handle of his hook, and began moving his right foot back upward, hoping to find someplace to put it. 

But the doctor had stopped activating her staff the moment she was jostled, and Roadhog found himself abruptly more tired again. He slowly pressed his foot down on the stone again, holding his breath. It shifted a little, but stayed.

He let himself breath a sigh of relief. 

Then it came out from under him. 

The sudden jolt made Roadhog’s grip on his hook falter, and before he knew it, he was in air. He heard the quiet rattle of chains as he began falling. Everything quiet, for just a single, solitary second. 

It quickly ended, and the realization of the situation hit Roadhog like a train. He quickly scrambled to grab the chain, still attached to the side of the cliff by the hook, and felt a bit of frantic relief when his grip on it tightened. 

He jolted, his momentum all at once stopping, and the hook was nearly pulled out from the rock. However, Roadhog was already scrambling to get a grip before it fell out completely. He quickly grabbed onto the cliff, and once he sensed that he was stable once again, he felt himself breath a sigh of relief. 

It was then that he noticed the sound of air pistons above him. He looked up, seeing the doctor holding tight onto her staff, the wings on her suit stretching out in golden light to slow her fall to that of a feather. 

_ So that’s what she meant when she said she could float,  _ he quietly thought to himself. He could only guess she’d managed to unravel herself in time before the chain was pulled taut from Roadhog’s weight. A good thing, too; the doctor could only work as a bargaining chip if she stayed in one piece. 

“Are you alright?” the doctor’s worried voice cut through the image in Roadhog’s head, and he looked back at her. She had almost reached his level, and was slowly beginning to float past him. 

_ She’s getting away,  _ a quiet, more frantic part of his mind reminded him.  _ She can move away from you now, you can’t let her. _

Roadhog quickly reached out towards the doctor and snatched her out of the air. She gave a small cry, either out of surprise or pain he wasn’t sure. It certainly didn’t last long, though, because she quickly gave a glare to him. 

“What was that?!” she growled. “Why do you insist on carrying me?!”

Roadhog felt like giving a witty retort to the question, but after the near fall he didn’t feel quite in the mood. “Don’t stop using your staff like that again,” he snarled, pulling her closer. “Got it?”

She leaned away from him a little, an uncomfortable expression on her face, but nodded. “Alright, fine,” she sighed. “But could you at least ease up your grip? I can’t help you if I’m passed out, you know.”

Roadhog paused for a moment at the comment, not giving a verbal reply. But then shortly afterwards he gave a quiet sigh and placed her on his shoulder. “Don’t stop using that dumb staff,” he growled. “And if you jump off, I’ll use my hook to pull you right back and kill you myself. Got it?”

The doctor raised an eyebrow at him, her expression somewhat contemptuous. “Yes, of course.”

She didn’t argue with him after that. Luckily, the rest of the climb was much more uneventful, and Roadhog felt a huge sigh of relief rumble through him when he’d finally made it to the top. The climb was surprisingly exhausting, although he hadn’t noticed the majority of it thanks to the doctor’s staff; he hated to admit it, but she was surprisingly useful. 

_ Speaking of which… _

Roadhog sat up to see where the doctor was, and was relieved to find that she hadn’t left while he was busy catching his breath. Instead, she seemed to be rubbing at her stomach in pain. He cocked his head in confusion. Had his grip actually injured her that badly? She wasn’t  _ that  _ weak, was she?

The doctor seemed to notice his staring, and gave a small laugh. “Ah, I wasn’t able to get out of that chain quickly enough. Thankfully it unraveled me when you pulled it, although it left quite a nasty bruise.”

Roadhog pointed at her staff. The doctor followed his finger, and gave a good-natured smile. “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t need to use that staff. It’s just some bruises, after all.”

Roadhog raised an eyebrow at the comment, but the doctor didn’t see it through the mask. Her smile faded. 

“Although, could you at least tell me why you insisted on carrying me up here? To be quite honest, it seemed almost a detriment to you.”

Roadhog didn’t respond, for a moment. The two sat there silently, and the doctor seemed like she was about to give up on getting an answer when he spoke up. 

“You’re not escaping from me.”

The doctor looked at him in surprise. “Escape?” her eyebrows furrowed. “You thought I’d run away?”

Roadhog didn’t answer: he didn’t need to, he knew the doctor already understood. But then, out of nowhere, she began bursting into quiet laughter. 

“You really think I’d abandon  _ you?” _

Roadhog didn’t reply, not sure what to say. 

The doctor shook her head. “You really think I could let you wander through these woods on your own with a clear conscience? I know there’s a population somewhere here, you think I’d leave them with a dangerous criminal?”

Roadhog knew that the question was rhetorical, but he still found himself struggling to find an answer. Sure, if he thought about it, it made  _ some  _ degree of sense. After all, wouldn’t it be better to be next to the criminal once Overwatch finally finds you?

But still, Roadhog was surprised. He thought back to the stammering, nervous woman that he’d seen in the ditch, struggling to negotiate some sort of ceasefire. She willingly welcomed the company of someone she was obviously afraid of, just for the sake of others?

It was so sentimental Roadhog almost felt sick from it. But still, that idea required an impressive amount of guts (and maybe a little bit of stupid, PhD be damned). 

And Roadhog could always respect a bit of guts, even from Overwatch. 

“I suppose you’re right, doctor.”

“Call me Mercy,” she waved her hand. 

“Hm?”

“You asked me to call you Roadhog back in the ditch, and now I’m asking you to call me Mercy. I’d rather be called by at least a codename, after all. Would you rather I just call you criminal?”

Roadhog sighed: perhaps she had a bit  _ too  _ much guts, she was back to being annoying. He looked around to where they were, staring over the treetops, until his eyes finally fell on the target. 

Mercy followed his gaze, and Roadhog could almost hear the satisfaction in her voice. “Eichenwalde castle.”

Roadhog grunted in affirmation, standing up and beginning to walk towards it. It was still a ways up from them, but at least it was in their sight. He was sure they could find a way up to it. 

He heard Mercy stand up behind him and quickly begin to catch up with him. “We’re not climbing anymore cliffs to get there, right?” 

He nodded. “You’d probably get me killed if I try again.”

Mercy glared at him. “You’re the one who insisted on carrying me, you know. And it was  _ your  _ partner who blew up the dumb bridge and got us both here in the first place.”

Roadhog sighed, rolling his eyes, even though he knew she couldn’t see it. “Fine. He was being an idiot there.”

“I’m glad you’re honest. And don’t worry, though,” Mercy snickered. “I’m sure Overwatch is doing just fine dealing with him.”

Roadhog wondered if she was being sarcastic. 

  
  



	5. Chapter 5

Symmetra had expected a lot of things when Winston called everyone together for an important meeting with a grim expression. 

She thought that maybe they’d found Angela’s corpse. She thought that perhaps Junkrat had escaped. Or maybe it was just another Talon assassination, and Satya would find herself needing to comfort Amelie. 

Fortunately, it wasn’t quite as bad as a dead Angela, but it certainly wasn’t great. 

“What do you mean we can’t keep searching!” Amelie yelled, slamming her hands down on the table of the meeting room. Winston rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. 

“I’m sorry, but it seems we’ve been too active for the UN’s comfort. Especially considering the destruction that went down in Eichenwalde, they’ve gotten jittery and declared for us to cease operations.”

“But the reassembly of Overwatch was already deemed illegal,” Satya spoke up, her arms crossed. “Why is defying them now an issue?”

“Because all of the UN now has their sights set on us and this base, and now we’re essentially not allowed to leave,” Winston sighed. “They’ve completely frozen up any and all Overwatch activity, including the search party. I’m planning on having some of us attend one of their meetings to at least allow us to continue the search, but that’ll still leave about three days just to wait for the meeting, and who knows how long it’ll take to convince them.”

D.va rubbed her jaw. “Is there anyone we could get to help provide support to convince them? Lucio and I can gather some public opinion, but is there anything else?”

“Many of the Overwatch agents haven’t replied to the recall, but Mei has contacted us and said that she’ll be arriving. She’d probably be willing to help us out here.”

“What about Fareeja?” Reinhardt spoke up. “I hear she’s now a part of Helix, perhaps she’d be willing to help us get the search for Angela back up?”

“That,” Winston raised a finger. “Isn’t actually a bad idea. In fact, it may be best if you contact her too, Reinhardt. She did always look up to you.”

Reinhardt gave a big smile. Amelie was leaning on the meeting table, her hands folded under chin. “And what of the rest of us? What should we do in the meantime?”

Winston’s face fell. “Once again, get contacts to support us if you can think of them. But otherwise, the most we can do is train and prepare as much as we can, so we can resume the search party the moment it’s allowed. But for now, we can’t leave the base, or else the UN could decide to finally prosecute us.”

Amelie was silent for a moment, and it seemed that no one else had anything to say. After a second of silence, Amelie abruptly stood up, said what Satya guessed was thank you in French, and walked out of the room, her heels clicking against the floor. 

A couple of heads followed her as she left, Satya included, while the rest stayed on Winston. He continued speaking about what they could do to gain the UN’s favor again, but Satya paid him no mind. She simply stared at the door that Amelie had vanished behind, wondering what to say to her. She resolved that once the meeting was over, she’d go and find her, and they’d have a little talk. 

That plan took considerably longer than expected, though. Satya had set out for her as soon as Winston had adjourned the meeting, but it seemed that Amelie had entered into one of those “moods,” the kind that made her hide away and not want to talk to anyone. A small part of Satya wondered if it was because of her time as a sleeper agent that almost no one was ever able to find her when she got like this. 

Satya spent a good couple of hours walking along the halls of Watchpoint: Gibraltar, not bothering to call her name; she knew Amelie wouldn’t respond. The hallways echoed with each click of her heels as she paced and forth, feeling more and more exasperated with each minute. After she found herself checking the same spots for the twelfth time she decided it was probably best to simply wait for Amelie to come to her. After all, it was almost time for dinner, and she knew that Amelie couldn’t stay away from a meal for long. 

Satya leaned against the wall, making sure she was perfectly positioned in the hallways so that Amelie would have to pass by her to get her food, and simply began to wait. The noises of the main hall began to quietly rise, as more and more people settled down inside. 

Satya perked up as she heard the clicking of shoes that were clearly trying to not sound as loud as they were. She looked up to see a dark ponytail quietly peeking around the corner, amber eyes staring at her. Satya couldn’t help but smile at the sight. “Come here to eat?”

Amelie glanced off to the side before sighing and walking out from behind the corner. She walked up to Satya and leaned against the wall next to her, her arms crossed. 

Satya leaned on her a little. “Where were you this time?”

“On the cliffside. It’s very easy to reach with my grappling hook,” she added at Satya’s panicked gaze. 

“Well. That explains why I couldn’t find you.”

“How long were you looking?” Amelie murmured, her gaze on the floor. 

“Two hours and twenty-four minutes.”

“I apologize.”

“You don’t have to. Are you ready to talk now?”

Amelie gave another sigh, this one more exasperated as she slid down the wall a little. “I just don’t know what to do, Satya.”

“About Angela?”

“About  _ anything. _ Before we met, I never felt like this, because I never decided what I’d do. It was always the higher ups.”

Satya made sure to be quiet. Amelie was always a bit more open about talking about her times in Talon with the two of them, but even then it was a rare occurrence and Satya didn’t want to discourage her. 

An even rarer occurrence was hearing Amelie talk about her time  _ before  _ Talon. 

“And then when I got my emotions back, it felt like I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know what to do with all of these new sensations, I didn’t know what to do away from Talon, I didn’t even know what to do as a  _ person. _ ”

The two of them were quiet for a moment. Amelie had fully slipped down the wall, and was now sitting down, her hands in her lap. “After years of never having to deal with emotions, I hated it,” she muttered with a strained voice, placing her chin onto her knees. 

Satya didn’t respond, simply sitting down next to Amelie and leaning a bit of her weight on her. Amelie responded in kind, although whether it was on purpose Satya wasn’t sure. She closed her eyes, relaxing and hoping that Amelie would feel it too. After several seconds of silence, Satya heard Amelie’s voice speak up again, much more stable. 

“I want to keep looking for her.”

She opened her eyes and looked at Amelie: she was staring at the wall with a hard glare. “I have to keep looking for her, I can’t spend my time waiting here and not knowing what to do.”

“You want to go against Winston’s orders?”

“If it means Angela’s safety, then yes. Please, don’t tell the others-“

“I’ll go with you.”

Amelie started, looking at Satya with raised eyebrows. Satya simply smiled, and continued speaking. 

“My time in Vishkar taught me many things. It taught me how to use hard light, how to negotiate with politicians, but most importantly, it taught me how authority can’t always be right. Leaving it made me realize that sometimes it’s better to resist your orders rather than blindly follow them.”

Amelie opened her mouth to say something, and Satya cut her off with a finger. 

“Only  _ sometimes,  _ though,” she warned. “An army wrought with disloyalty is nothing short of chaos. Don’t expect me to follow along on all of your crazy plans, Ame.”

Amelie gave a smile at the comment. “Oh, thank goodness. And here I wondering if I was talking to Satya.”

They both gave a small chuckle, and sighed, leaning against each other. “What are we going to do?” Amelie sleepily murmured, her head in the crook of Satya’s neck.

“You mean how we’re going to get off base without getting caught?”

“And traveling to Eichenwalde without anyone noticing, and how we’re going to survive out there without any connections back home, and how we’re going to get Angela back once we find her, and how we’ll fight Roadhog if he’s still wandering around there too.”

Satya pursed her lips. “That is a worrying amount of unknowns.”

Amelie gave a pitiful whine, nuzzling deeper into Satya’s neck. 

It was at that moment that the two of them heard light footsteps approaching. 

Amelie slowly sat up straighter, and the two of them looked down the hallway to see a small figure walking around the corner. It was Hana, wearing a pair of jeans and a pale pink sweater. She had a frustrated expression, and was almost aggressively chewing a piece of gum. She stopped when she saw the two of them sitting down. 

“Sorry, did I interrupt something?”

Amelie shook her head. “Not at all, don’t worry. What’s gotten you so upset?”

Hana made a noise that seemed to be a cross between a scowl and sigh, looking off to the side. “I tried questioning Junkrat about twenty minutes ago, and he didn’t give anything. He barely even talked to me!” She raised her arms in exasperation. “Not to mention his horrid smell. Could barely stay in the same room as him for twenty minutes.” 

She wrinkled her nose, her arms dropping to her sides. She looked to the side, thinking for a moment, before her eyes lit up. “Oh! Actually, I was actually planning on asking you this, Amelie,” she wrung her hands, which was an odd thing to see on the usually confident and boisterous Hana. “Do you think you could try and talk with him?”

Amelie tilted her head to the side. “Why?”

“Well…” Hana drew out the word, her body tilted as she stalled. “You’re just more, uh...intimidating? You’re much taller than me, and you’ve got that killer glare. Not to mention, but uh, you’ve probably got more experience in this kind of stuff than I do.”

Satya tried not to think about what Hana was implying. It didn’t work. She gave a light scowl. “What are you trying to say-“

“Sure. How about after we eat?”

Both Satya and Hana looked at Amelie in surprise, before the latter split into a wide grin. “I think it’ll have to be later than that, don’t want to vomit my meal from his smell.”

Amelie gave a small laugh, and Hana shared a giggle while Satya stared at the two of them (although mostly Amelie) in bafflement. Almost as if she could sense the gaze, Amelie turned to look at her. Satya raised an eyebrow to show her confusion, and the sniper gave a small smile before planting a kiss on her cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea.” Was all she whispered in her ear, before standing up and walking alongside Hana into the food hall. 

It took Satya a few seconds to realize that she hadn’t gotten up to follow them, and quickly tried her best to gracefully scramble to catch up. 

 

—-

 

Junkrat was  _ bored.  _ He had been stuck in this plain, white room for what seemed like  _ hours.  _ He wondered when they’d finally take him back to his cell. Or hell, maybe they’d kill him at this point, it’d be easier to deal with than the boredom. 

He pinched the ends of his hair between his fingers, feeling how they were slowly cooling down. He had never been separated from anything flammable or explosive for so long, and it was agitating. Overwatch had searched him over five times, and had managed to take every weapon available on him. Hell, they even took his fucking arm and leg! Sure, there was definitely a stick of dynamite, or a knife, or  _ some  _ sort of weapon (he couldn’t remember) in it, but it was still rude to take someone’s arm! And here Overwatch acted like the dignified ones. What would they think if he grabbed the arm of that lady in the blue dress? At least, he  _ thought  _ it was an arm, and not just some weird mechanical glove? Who even knew what Vishkar was doing half the time. Who knew what suits in general were doing half the time.

Junkrat groaned, banging his head on the table in front of him. He’d been hitting the metal with his forehead for the past hour, in order to feel  _ something,  _ but then that weird pink-whiskered girl entered, and she threatened to dump water on him if kept at it. Luckily, she’d left about ten minutes ago, and now Junkrat was free to ruin as many brain cells as he wanted. 

He was so busy making his head swim with each impact that he almost didn’t notice the click of the door opening. 

He jolted up, preparing to fire some insults at the pink-whiskered bitch, knowing she probably had some water with her. But the words died in his mouth when he saw a slim woman step through, a long dark ponytail trailing behind her. 

Junkrat pursed his lips. He’d made sure to put as many explosives in the tower back in that moldy old castle, and yet here she was, not a purple stain on the wall. 

Disappointing. 

“What are  _ you _ doing here?”

The woman raised her eyebrow, staring at a point above his eyes. “Have you been hitting your head this entire time?” she asked, walking towards the table and standing in front of him. 

“Yeah. You got a problem with that?”

The woman didn’t respond, simply extending an arm and poking his forehead. Junkrat jerked back at the touch, the spot surprisingly sensitive, and when he looked at her, he saw a small spot of red on her finger. “You’re bleeding.”

Junkrat gently poked his forehead (not noticing Amelie flinch at the contamination), seeing blood appear on his fingers as well. “Yeah. So?” he rubbed his hands on the side of his pants. “This is barely anything. And besides, everyone bleeds. ”

The woman scrunched her face for a moment, staring at the spot on his pants with the fresh blood on it, before sighing. “We still haven’t found your partner.”

Junkrat snorted. “‘Course not. You think Roadie would let himself get caught by cunts like you?”

“Actually, we don’t think he’s hiding,” she crossed her arms. “In our last search party, we discovered that Mr. Rutledge may have fallen down more than one cliff, meaning he likely fell much farther, at least a hundred and twenty meters.”

Junkrat didn’t respond to her, his eyebrows raised. She continued. “We doubt many trees could have slowed down a fall like that that for survivability, especially not for Mr. Rutledge.”

The two of them were quiet for a moment, the woman having a faint, self-satisfied smile on her face. Junkrat stared back at her, shocked. “Roadie’s last name is  _ Rutledge?” _

The woman’s smug expression vanished, being replaced by one of surprise and then of anger. “Is that really what you’re focusing on right now?”

“What  _ should _ I focus on then, your shitty idea that Roadie somehow died from a little fall like that?!” Junkrat abruptly stood up, or at least as much as he could handcuffed to the table. 

“ _ Little _ ?! Do you not understand how high  _ a hundred and twenty meters _ -”

“I know big numbers, bitch! What  _ you  _ don’t get is how much it takes to  _ kill  _ that lug!”

That seemed to shut her up. She looked at Junkrat in confusion, the tension leaving her shoulders. “What are you talking about?”

Junkrat sat back in his seat, trying his best to cross his arms with only one arm. “Roadie’s got those cans. Don’t know how they work, but I’ve seen him take grenades to the  _ face _ , and all he needs is a breather before he’s ready to go and kill whoever threw it,” he looked up at the woman, a smug grin on his face. “That big idiot will survive a fall like that easy. I’d bet my arm on it if it weren’t already gone.”

The woman stared at him for another moment, her eyebrows furrowed. She chewed on her cheek for a moment, thinking, before looking back at him. 

“Can the cans survive a hundred and twenty meter drop, too?”

Junkrat froze. He didn’t want to admit that he ever got surprised, or startled, or scared, but in that moment he couldn’t help himself. The woman must have recognized the response, because she gave a small laugh, the bitch. 

“That’s what I thought. Are you finally worrying about your partner now?”

Junkrat looked back up at her and scowled. “So you want me to? What for then?”

The woman straightened up and leaned towards Junkrat, her palms on the table. “At approximately 1700 yesterday, Mr. Rutledge was knocked off of the Eichenwalde bridge, carrying Doctor Angela Ziegler with him.”

“Yeah yeah, we all saw that. Get to your point!”

“Then don’t interrupt me,” she growled, before taking a deep breath and regaining her composure. “We don’t know if Mr. Rutledge and Dr. Ziegler are still with each other, but they’re most certainly still somewhere in the Eichenwalde forest. So here’s a deal for you, Mr. Fawkes: We will be sending out a small search party tomorrow, intending to find them both on foot. We are offering to let you join us.”

Junkrat straightened up, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. “The hell are your plans there?”

“Our search party aims to find both Dr. Ziegler and Mr. Rutledge alive. However, of the two of them, we know the least about Mr. Rutledge, and we want you to help advise us on his behavior. It may lead us to finding him.”

Junkrat snorted. “That’s a weak ass excuse. What’s the string here?”

The woman tilted her head, a plastic smile on her face. “If we let you help us, you’ll adhere to our rules. That means no explosions, no attacking any Overwatch members, and standard protocol for this mission. If you violate any of our rules, then we’re immediately locking you up again and making sure you’re never in contact with Mr. Rutledge again, even if we find him.”

Junkrat opened his mouth to reply, but the woman held up her finger. “ _ And _ ,” she drew out the word, glaring at him. “Once the search party’s over, both you and Mr. Rutledge will become a part of Overwatch.”

The junker jumped up. “ _ What _ ?! How the hell is that even a thing?!”

“While we’re not allowed to bring criminals into our organization, a cleared record can easily get past that. Believe me, I know,” she smiled. “So how does it sound? A chance to find your partner and a cleared record, and all we need in turn is your cooperation.”

He stared at her, his face twitching as he struggled to find a response to her. 

 

\---

 

“Part of Overwatch? What’s she talking about?” Hana leaned on the wall, staring through the two-way glass, a fresh piece of gum in her mouth. “Isn’t this like, the kind of stuff that got Overwatch shut down in the first place?”

“It appears to be so, doesn’t it?” Symmetra stared at the two, her arms crossed and her gaze focused. She turned to look at Hana. “Remember our mission debriefing before we went to Eichenwalde?”

“Of course.”

“Then you must likely remember how Junkrat is a target of Talon. Well, that’s still true.”

“So Widowmaker’s betting it’ll be safer if he’s running around with us?”

“Yes. Although, he won’t be with Overwatch while we’re searching for Angie. We’ll need to keep a strict watch over him, as well as keep him heavily guarded. We can’t risk losing him, with his cooperation so close in reach.”

“Yeah, as an official agent.”

“Even though Ame said that he’d be a ‘part’ of Overwatch, that sentence is stretched far into technicality. Both of them will be kept under tight watch, more prisoners than agents. However, with this deal we could have their verbal consent to being kept under our guard.”

“Hm. Not bad. And maybe this deal could let us in on some information we need from him? He still barely talks to me.”

Symmetra grimaced. “Yes, there is a chance for that too. However, this is still quite illegal and unethical, and you’re not wrong about us reflecting Blackwatch with this tactic. Angela is sure to kill all four of us the moment she finds out.”

“Four! Why would I get caught into it?”

Symmetra turned around to look at her, her eyebrows raised. “Do you not agree with this? I apologize, I must have assumed, since you didn’t speak out against Amelie’s plan until now.”

Hana raised her hands. “N-no, no, that’s not what I’m trying to say, it’s just…” she gave an exasperated sigh, crossing her arms and adjusting herself so that she stood next to Symmetra. “It’s just, back when we were searching for them yesterday, I said some things to her, got her really upset. I want to make it up to her.”

Symmetra quirked an eyebrow. “Are you planning on telling Ame this yourself? Because when she told you her plan, you simply agreed to transport us to Eichenwalde, not make up for a past mistake.”

“I’m planning on explaining it to her, relax! I just didn’t get the chance, with you two rushing to come talk to Junkrat.”

Symmetra hummed, a small smile on her lips. “I suppose so.”

“I understand if this kind of decision will take a bit of time.”

Widowmaker’s voice came up on the speaker, and the two of them immediately turned their attention back to the conversation in front of them. She was still standing confidently in front of the junker, a hand on her hip. After a moment of silence, Junkrat tapping his fingers on the metal table, Widowmaker tilted her head. 

“I will be leaving now, then. I’ll come back in an hour to see if you’ve decided.”

Widowmaker whipped around and began to briskly walk towards the door. Her hand landed on the door and opened it for a moment when Junkrat’s voice came through.

“I’ll do it.”

Widowmaker stopped in her tracks, a small smile starting to bloom on her face. She turned back around towards the junker, his gaze meeting hers, and closed the door again. 

“Are you sure about this, Mr. Fawkes?”

“Why you questioning me now? I said I’ll do it, so a deal’s a deal.” he spat on his hand and held it out for Widowmaker to take. “And don’t call me Fawkes. Makes me sound like a fuckin’ suit.”

Widowmaker stared at the filthy hand held out in front of her and recoiled a little. Hana couldn’t blame her, she felt herself cringe a little at the sight, and she could only guess what Symmetra’s reaction was. 

“Er...just a verbal confirmation is enough, um, Junkrat,” Widowmaker coughed. “And I suppose if we’re on names, you can call me Amelie. I remember hearing you call me ‘spider-bitch’ last time we met.”

Junkrat wiped his hand on his pants again. “Alright  _ Ah-melly _ . When are we leaving?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“You know I can’t tell time in here without a sight of the bloody sky, right?”

“It’s in seven hours.” 

Junkrat flashed a grin. “Perfect! That’ll be enough time for me to fix up my arm ‘n leg, y’know, since your big pink robot bent ‘em.”

“Actually, I forgot to mention something about that…”

“What d’you mean? Am I not allowed to have my limbs back for this?”

Widowmaker scratched at the edges of her jaw. “Well, after confiscating your prosthetics we discovered various weapons stashed in them. A knife and a stick of dynamite, more specifically. As such, we’re not giving you your ah,  _ custom  _ design prosthetics, and instead shall provide you with some of our own during the search.”

“What?! Why?”

“Because even though you’ve agreed to our conditions, I don’t want to provide you with something you can hide highly dangerous weapons in.”

Junkrat growled. “But I’ll get my own arm ‘n leg back afterwards, right?”

Widowmaker pursed her lips. “Maybe.”

He gave a small groan at the obscurity of the answer, leaning back in his chair. “Alright,  _ fine. _ Now can you get me out of this room?”

Widowmaker smiled, turning back to the door. “I’ll send someone in to take you to your cell.”

And with that, she opened and slammed the door to the interrogation room as Junkrat protested about still being in the room. Symmetra quickly leaned over and turned down the volume of the speaker as Widowmaker gave a nervous laugh. “Satya, you wouldn’t mind uh, making some prosthetics for him?”

“I was assuming that when you promised him new ones,” Satya responded, her voice monotonous. 

“Well I wasn’t going to give him his old ones! Who knows what kind of traps he put into it. What if the arm  _ is  _ a bomb?”

Hana snickered, and both pairs of eyes turned towards her. Satya sighed. “In any case, I’ll just need his measurements, and I’m sure I’ll have them built before we leave.”

Widowmaker sagged her shoulders in relief. “Thank you, Satya.”

“It’s not a worry,” Symmetra smiled and gave Widowmaker a light kiss on the cheek before gazing at Hana. “How are your improvements on your mech doing?”

“I told you, they’re almost done. Just give me the night to work, and we’ll be good to head out tomorrow.”

“Are you sure you’re fine with staying up all night?”

Hana shrugged. “I pull all-nighters all the time.”

“Doing what?”

“Filming livestreams, fixing my mech, playing video games-“

“Alright, I understand. Just, take care of yourself.”

Hana smiled. “I’ll be the only one who’ll be tracking down and working with a dangerous criminal in a fully armored mech suit. I should be saying that to  _ you _ .”

Widowmaker laughed. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

Hana sighed, her smile fading as she turned to look back at Junkrat, who was still ranting, although it was more to himself. Her gaze hardened, her memory drifting back to the edge of the cliff that they had looked over, not a single spot of red visible at the bottom. 

_ For both of your sakes,  _ she swore to the junker.  _ That doctor better be alive.  _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, this was actually supposed to come out a week earlier but due to a) me being unable to write Junkrat and b) AO3 being weird and not allowing me to upload in rich text, this happened. What's a girl to do :|
> 
> AAAAaaand then I need to edit it a day later. Great.


	6. Chapter 6

Angela bent down next to the bright, flowing creek and placed a tentative finger inside; it was freezing cold. Smiling a little, she quickly began unfastening a part of her Valkyrie armor. She pulled off a piece from her arm to look at the water filtration device stashed inside, making sure that it hadn’t been broken back at the fall. It had a small crack on the edge, but otherwise was still in fantastic shape. She smiled, and began cupping some water through the curved piece of armor, letting the water filter as it settled in it. 

It had been on Angela’s second mission with her Valkyrie prototype that she’d realized the necessity for it; some of the soldiers had gotten separated with Angela, and were in desperate need of care. However, they didn’t have any clean water to quench their thirst or clean their wounds. Angela was only able to heal with her Caduceus staff and help with the latter a bit. In the end, they all had to drink old river water to try and survive: most of them had gotten sick, and the more seriously wounded died, their immune system already vulnerable. After that, Angela quickly installed a portable water filter into her armor, and it had never left in every new version of the suit she’d made. 

She lifted the water to drink it: the cold water in her throat was such a relief she nearly sighed out loud. 

“What’s that?”

She turned to see Roadhog staring at her with those blank goggles. Or, more specifically, at the water filter. She held it up, swishing the water a little. “It filters out the water, keeps it clean. Do you need to use it?”

He simply shook his head, looking back down at the creek and cupping some of it in his enormous hands. Angela crumpled her nose a little at the thought, but tried to dismiss it.  _ He’s probably used to getting sick, his immune system must be like steel.  _ The thought didn’t make her feel better. 

Roadhog stared at the water in his hands for a moment, before dumping it and dipping them back into the water, this time now cleaning them. After a few seconds, he pulled them back out, flicking the water off. He was quiet for a moment, before turning to look at Angela again. She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

He simply made a spinning motion with his finger. Angela immediately got the idea. Sighing and rolling her eyes a little, she turned around so as not to look at Roadhog. She heard him wait a moment, before she heard him lean over and begin drinking from the creek. She stuck out her tongue a little in disgust at the sound, but what bothered more was the fact that he didn’t want her to see. 

“You know, I’ve seen your face already,” she spoke up before she could stop herself. The sounds of drinking behind her abruptly stopped. “Back in the ditch, when your mask was broken, remember?”

Roadhog didn’t reply, and Angela decided to risk it and turn back around. Roadhog was sitting up, staring at her, his mask partially pulled back to only hide one of his eyes. The one she could see was small, round, narrowed with annoyance, and an extremely bright yellow: she wondered if it was due to the radiation. He had prickly, pale hairs stippled along his chin, and a silver ring piercing on his lip. 

But what caught her attention the most was the edges of the scar on the other side of his face. She saw holes punctured in pink skin that looked like it had almost been stretched to cover his face: Angela immediately recognized it as a poorly healed burn scar, with the holes caused by...something else. Roadhog didn’t seem particularly angry that she was looking at his face, but rather seemed to be deep in thought about it. Angela wasn’t sure what to say; sure, she’d seen part of his face when his mask was broken, but it certainly hadn’t been the scarred side. She was barely thinking when she opened her mouth. 

“Has Junkrat seen your face?”

Roadhog gave a low, cruel laugh. It sounded almost strange, not hearing it muffled through a mask. “Doesn’t remember it.”

Angela looked down as Roadhog put the mask back onto his face, securing the strap. “Is that why you want to be called Roadhog?”

He was quiet for a while, simply turning and continuing to walk upstream. Angela silently walked behind him, wondering if he would respond. He did eventually, after about a minute, and it was long enough that Angela needed to take a moment to realize it was a response to her earlier question. 

“Mako died in the omnium.”

It was a fair enough answer.

 

—-

 

It had taken an hour to get back up to the bridge that the two of them had originally fallen off of (well, only one fell off. The other was  _ dragged _ ). They had both looked at the unstable, moldy old brick of the wall leading up to the bridge, and silently agreed that they weren’t going to try climbing again. The search for the way around eventually lead them to walking through the ruined streets of Eichenwalde, littered with overgrowth, omnics, and overgrown omnics. Roadhog gave the first few a glance and a grunt of contempt, but as they kept showing up he stopped acknowledging them. 

But Angela couldn’t stop staring every time they passed one. Sure, she hadn’t been on the front lines of Overwatch back during the omnic crisis, but she along with everyone else had witnessed the destruction they had caused, whether it be from a screen on the news or their own burned up house. 

She thought back to the story Reinhardt would tell her, about the fall of Eichenwalde, about the origin of his scar with a distant look in his eyes, and she couldn’t help but hug herself a little with each OR14 they passed by. 

She looked up to see Roadhog staring at an entrance that had been filled with rubble. She took a step forward to warn him against pushing through it, when he suddenly put his foot down on the pile and began climbing over it and onto the roof of the building. It didn’t take long, considering his ridiculous height, and once he reached the top, he turned around and extended his arm for Angela to grab. She simply shook her head with her hand held up, and backed up a few steps. Roadhog straightened, not sure of what she was going to do, before stepping back as her Valkyrie suit activated and she rushed towards him. He quickly stepped to the side to avoid her crashing into him, and she gracefully landed on the tile of the roof. She turned back to him, a smile on her face. “Let’s keep going, shall we?”

He seemed shocked at her flying, but it hadn’t been until they dropped back down onto the pebble streets did Roadhog speak up. “So what  _ does  _ that thing do?”

Angela turned. “What, my suit? Um, well, a lot of things. It allows me to slow my fall, it lets me quickly fly to people, helps as a shock absorber,” she counted each thing on her fingers, trying to remember all of them. “It’s also got storage for stitching tools, water filters, and fresh bandages. I tried putting a defibrillator into it once, although that proved to be more dangerous than helpful.”

She couldn’t see Roadhog’s eyes through his goggles, but with the way he kept staring at her as they walked, she could guess there was some amount of surprise. He raised his finger to show he wanted to say something, but Angela didn’t notice before she continued. 

“Oh, and there’s also a place on my back to attach my staff, along with a holster on my waist, although,” she gave a dry laugh. “I haven’t needed it recently.”

Roadhog pointed a finger towards the staff in her hand. “And what about that?”

“Oh, not quite as much: it rapidly heals wounds with this button,” she pointed. “And can provide an energizing boost with this one, both of which you’ve already seen. Although, I suppose another feature is that it’s specific to fingerprints, meaning that only I can use it.”

“What if your allies need to use it to heal you.”

She shook her head. “That won’t be necessary. But if it’s to heal someone else without me, then I can quickly input their fingerprints to get the Caduceus staff to recognize them, at least temporarily.”

Roadhog stopped walking, silently staring at her. She looked back at him, her expression unamused. “I’m not inputting your fingerprints into this staff.”

“I have a gun.”

“And if you use it, you won’t ever be able to get the staff to work.”

He grunted, seemingly wanting to argue more, but didn't. It was a strange thing about Roadhog: whenever their conversations seemed to reach some sort of word limit for him, he’d simply stop talking, even if they were in the middle of a thought. She wondered if Junkrat had ever noticed it, considering his “conversations” with Roadhog were mostly one-side rambles about explosions. Still, even if it was due to a habit of his, Angela still accepted the victory in the argument. At the very least, it was a victory that he didn’t fill her stomach with scrap metal. 

 

\---

 

It was apparently windy that day. Having been surrounded by trees and broken buildings for a large portion of the time, she hadn’t realized when exactly it had picked up. But now, standing on the bridge again, cracks and holes riddled through it, she could clearly feel it pushing against her hair and making her squint. The two of them looked over the horizon, at the large forest that they’d climbed out of, and beyond that. And that was when she spotted it. She pointed her finger. “Do you see that, Roadhog?”

“Where?”

“That line of smoke, over in the trees.”

“There’s a forest fire?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s too controlled, too small. I think it might be a campfire, or chimney smoke,” She squinted, trying to see it more clearly. “The trees are covering it, I need a higher viewpoint-wha!”

At that moment, Angela’s sentence was cut off as Roadhog abruptly grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up over his head. She found herself moving quite a bit higher, with his several feet of added height helping her vantage point. She covered her eyes to block out the sun as she looked at the column of smoke. But she still wasn’t high enough. She tapped on Roadhog’s hand, and he looked up at her. 

“Um, Roadhog, it’s still not enough. Could you, perhaps, flatten your palm?”

He nodded, tilting his hand and uncurling it so it faced upwards. Angela kept herself balanced on his massive hand as he did so, and when he was no holding onto her waist, she shakily planted her feet on the hand and straightened up. She stood on top of his hand, her legs trembling a little, and from there she could finally see the column clearly. Just past the trees, she saw a small cluster of red tile roofs out in the distance, small lines of smoke emerging from several spots. She gave a big grin. “It’s a town, Roadhog!” she yelled down at him. “An active one!”

Roadhog grunted and nodded, before abruptly moving his hand out from underneath Angela. She gave a quick yelp of surprise before stabilizing herself with the suit and glaring at him as she touched back down onto the ground. He simply responded with a snicker. Giving a huff, Angela pointed back at the smoke. “There’s a town over in the distance there. If we can manage to travel to it, we can likely get some food, shelter, and some communications.”

_ Back to Overwatch,  _ she silently added, as Roadhog nodded in agreement before looking around the area again. His gaze rested on the front gate of Eichenwalde, and began walking toward it. Angela tilted her head. “Where are you going?”

“Checking,” was all he said as he continued walking. Angela frowned a little, before quickly walking after him. 

“Checking for what?”  _ Overwatch? Talon agents? Explosives? _

“Our stash.”

Angela furrowed her eyebrows. “But there’s no doubt that Overwatch took that when they captured Junkrat. After all, it was the reason we came to Eichenwalde in the first place. It’ll all have been taken and returned.”

“Not all of it,” he growled, walking through the sunlit hallways of the castle and approaching the throne that once contained Balderich. 

Angela raised her eyebrows in shock. Had they split the stash and hidden part of it somewhere else? Did that mean that Overwatch hadn’t taken all of the gold back? She scratched her chin as she frantically began changing plans.  _ If they haven’t noticed they have all the money yet, then they’ll surely notice soon. And once they do, they’ll come back to get the rest of it. So that means, if we just stay here until they arrive- _

Angela’s thoughts were cut off as a loud, adorable squeak echoed through the hallway. She jolted up to see Roadhog having pulled out a giant pachimari doll out from behind the throne. She stared at it for a minute. It seemed to be a special limited edition outfit, dressed for the lunar new year in a small red shirt. It was especially large, able to fill Roadhog’s palm: it looked like something you’d win from a rigged game at an amusement park. Roadhog gave a grunt, squeaking it. The sound echoed through the room almost ominously “Only thing left behind.”

Angela still found herself unable to respond, frozen from shock. Her eyes twitched, then her fingers, then all of a sudden she was laughing. She doubled over, barely able to breath with all of her giggling. Roadhog simply stared at her patiently, his expression unreadable. 

“You know,” she spoke between laughs. “I saw from reports that you often stole a large amount of pachimari toys, but it had never occurred to me as to whether they were  _ real- _ ” she crouched into a ball on the floor. “God, what other parts of your reports are true?!”

Roadhog walked towards her, the pachimari still in his hand. “What do those reports say?”

Angela’s breathing finally began slowing down as she looked up at Roadhog and began wracking through her memories to think of what she’d heard. And, as she kept thinking, her mind kept going back to a particular episode of  _ A Moment in Crime _ . 

“That Junkrat is good at barbecues?” she asked, an eyebrow raised. 

Roadhog let out a surprised burst of laughter. It was different from his laugh earlier that day, when his mask was pulled up. This one had humor, even through the muffling of his mask. Angela couldn’t help but begin chuckling again with him.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU BETTER BELIEVE THAT PACHIMARI'S HERE TO STAY 
> 
> sorry that this chapter's shorter than usual, I'll probably be deviating from having only one perspective per chapter a lot more after this point.
> 
> Roadhog’s face was mostly inspired by this lovely artwork here:  
> http://epicukulelesolo.tumblr.com/post/153136068170
> 
> Although I did change his eye color to yellow since Junkrat has yellow eyes and I was like thats??? Not a normal eye color??? So I just attributed it to radiation and so gave Roadhog the same thing.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to give this fic a quick edit while I was updating it, don't worry nothing major's changed just some grammar and spelling mistakes.

“They’ve finally moved out.”

Akande looked up from his gauntlet, a tool in his hand and a panel in the weapon open. He raised an eyebrow. “Could you not wait to tell me until after I’ve finished working?”

Sombra shrugged, a smug expression on her face. “Maybe. But I thought you wouldn’t mind.”

Akande looked back down to the gauntlet, his eyes glinting with annoyance.”Very well. Give me your report.”

She grinned. “They’ve managed to sneak out with one of Gibraltar’s smaller planes. From the cameras I can tell that it’s Widowmaker, D.va, Symmetra, aaaaand…” she dragged out the last syllable, her finger doing loops in the air. “Junkrat.”

Akande nodded, already accustomed to Sombra’s behavior. “When will they land in Eichenwalde?”

“Sooner than us, if that’s what you’re planning. They’ve gotten a pretty fast jet with a head start, they’ll be deep in the forest by the time we arrive there.”

“Then we’ll need to move quickly to make sure they don’t find their doctor before we get to them. Reaper will likely need to go, just in case the team runs into the larger Junker.”

Sombra raised her hand. “Can I go too?”

Akande raised an eyebrow, looking up at her. “There usually isn’t technology in a forest for you to hack, Sombra.”

She rolled her eyes, grinning. “Only if you don’t look. Besides, I can help with the recapture of Widowmaker. It seems some of her modifications could only be deactivated rather than removed entirely, so if I get to her I could reactivate them and at the very least incapacitate her.”

“If that’s what you’re planning to do, then I’ll need to go as well.” A third voice echoed through the room. Both of them turned to look and see a familiar head of orange hair leaning on the doorway.

Moira was wearing simple, loose clothing, the metal mask and pumps of her usual outfit were nowhere in sight. Although, her nails were still at their ridiculous length. She smiled, standing up and walking towards the two of them. “Who knows what kind of damage you could do to the subject by just reactivating modifiers at random. You’ll need my advice.”

Sombra gave a large, exaggerated sigh, slouching over a nearby desk. “ _Fine._ ”

“It’s not as if you could’ve turned her down anyways,” Akande said, almost humorously.

“What, you don’t think I know?”

“I’m glad we’ve all come to agreement,” Moira clapped her hands together with a smile. “We’ll move out immediately, don’t want the trail getting cold. Get a couple of foot soldiers to come with us, at least to give us a numerical advantage once we find them.”

Sombra straightened up. “Actually, that won’t be necessary, we can build up our numbers on the way.”

“What do you mean?” Moira raised an eyebrow.

She grinned. “Eichenwalde’s littered with omnic corpses. _Bastion_ units. OR14s. You think a couple can’t be reactivated?”

 

\---

 

Satya was already regretting agreeing to Amelie’s plan.

Not the mission itself. Sure, she was hesitant at disobeying orders, but if it meant they’d find Angela, she was fine with it.

No, what was _really_ bothering her was how she had decided to bring along the Junker, and well…

It seemed that they’d all underestimated at how _annoying_ he could be.  

Although, what was even stranger was that Satya felt strangely conflicted by that fact. Sure, he was unbelievably irritating, but it meant he was _talking._ And from what D.va had said, he’d been practically mute ever since he’d been separated from Roadhog.

“He kept pleading the fifth while I tried interrogating him!” D.va had vented. “We’re not even in America! _He doesn’t even know what the fifth amendment is!_ ”

But now, he wouldn’t stop chatting. And while it bothered Satya to no end, D.va seemed to be taking advantage of the situation, trying to sneakily put in questions to see if he’d answer them before he could catch himself. The situation wasn't that great otherwise, though. To Junkrat, it seemed that the concepts of “reading” and “the room” never crossed.

“So why ain’t you purple anymore?”

Amelie continued to walk in front of them, but Satya saw her shoulders tense a bit. Junkrat continued, picking at the pristine white prosthetics they’d given him. They looked like a normal arm and leg, almost exact copies of Satya’s design, but with all of the mud and oil on the junker they looked painfully out of place. “I mean, like what, a year ago? You were chasing me an Roadie all over the place! And you were purple! Purple outfit, purple skin, purple gun, purple _hair?_ You knew how to stick with a theme! So what happened?”

D.va’s eyes were wide, frantically looking between the two of them. Satya couldn’t see Amelie’s expression from where she was walking, but she could tell from the slow rising and falling of her shoulders that she was controlling her breathing. Whether it was out of anger or panic, she didn’t know. But before she could step in to comfort her, Amelie whipped around and looked at Junkrat with a forced smile.

“I got tired of the color,” She replied sweetly before turning back around.

Satya breathed out a sigh of relief; it seemed that Junkrat’s careless words hadn’t truly gotten to her.

“Okay, but weren’t you also working for-“

“How about we change the topic,” Amelie interjected, almost yelling as she pointed to the thin river they’d been walking by. “That river should lead us to the cliff that Roadhog likely fell off of. We’re going to try and get as close of a guess as to where he landed, and move from there.”

Junkrat pursed his lips, but seemed to understand. Satya felt the need to interject. “If we’re travelling down that cliff, I’m not doing it next to Jamison.”

“You can ride on my mech to get down,” D.va offered.

“There’s no way that I’m holding onto Junkrat and carrying him down the cliff with my hook,” Amelie angrily muttered.

“Then perhaps Jamison rides on D.va’s mech?”

“What?! Why does he have to get on it? I just cleaned it!” Satya could see her annoyed expression through the tinted panel.

“Because that way none of us has to make skin contact with him.”

She growled, before giving an annoyed sigh. “Alright, fine, fair enough.”

“Hey!” Junkrat whined, “I’m right here! How ‘bout you ask me for _my_ opinion? I ain't touching that pink metal robot not-a-robot thing!”

Everyone groaned as Junkrat continued complaining. At this rate, they were never going to find Angela. Amelie scratched her chin, before perking up and looking over at him.

“Well, if you don’t want to ride on top of the mech, then you’ll have to clean yourself before you’re touching any of us.”

Junkrat recoiled, almost hissing. “Why do I need to do that?!”

“Because you’re filthy,” Satya interjected. “And we refuse to touch you until you’ve removed _at least five_ of the dirt layers you’re currently wearing,” Junkrat continued hissing. “Why are you so adamant about water, anyways?”

His eyes bugged out at the question. “That shit’ll _kill you_! The hell do you mean ‘what’s wrong with it’?”

Satya furrowed her eyebrows. “Wait, do you mean the water in Australia?” She turned to look at the others for confirmation. “The radiated kind?”

“You…do know that the water’s not like that everywhere, right?” Amelie tilted her head to the side.

Junkrat squinted. “What the hell are you talking about?”

D.va sighed. “I don’t think one conversation’s gonna make him understand, if he’s been avoiding water for…” she looked over Junkrat. “ _That_ long.”

“You may have a point there,” Satya agreed, before turning back to the junker. “So, what’s your choice? Get thrown in the creek or stay on D.va’s mech?”

He didn’t respond, simply glaring at her suspiciously. “This wasn’t part of the deal.”

“What _do_ you remember of the deal?” She raised an eyebrow, thinking back to reports on Junkrat’s short memory.

“Erhm, not _much,_ but I’m sure this stuff wasn’t part of it!”

Satya crossed her arms. “Actually, you agreed that while we’re on this search party, you had to carry out the mission _our_ way. For example, no explosives, no attacking us, _and,”_ she raised a finger to emphasize her point. “You have to take orders from us.”

D.va chewed on the inside of her cheek, but didn’t say anything as Junkrat objected. “No way! No way I’d be stupid enough to agree to something like that!”

“Well, you did. It was so you could find Roadhog, remember?”

“Still, this feels _way_ too unfair for me to agree…”

“Both of you,” Amelie’s voice cut through them. “We’re here.”

With her voice snapping Satya out of hyperfocus, she noticed that she could hear the sounds of rushing water by them. She looked over, and sure enough there was a drop off where both land and water vanished. She hummed, and looked back at Junkrat. “So, what’s your choice going to be? Ride on the mech, or get thrown in the river?”

 

—-

 

Amelie felt nauseous as she stared at the dark, greasy fingerprints Junkrat was leaving behind as he climbed on the top of D.va’s bright pink mech. Judging from Satya’s stare, Amelie could only guess that she felt similarly.

After a bit of stumbling (and Junkrat blaming the new prosthetics for his lack of balance), he finally seemed somewhat secure, grabbing onto the two fins of the mech. “S-so, what are you tw-you two going to do?” He asked, his voice trembling a little; he must not have felt too secure on the thing.

Amelie smiled, reaching out an arm and feeling Satya’s body weight begin to lean into it before she pulled her closer. She lifted her gun so Junkrat could clearly see it. “I have a grappling hook.”

And with that, she walked over to a nearby tree, shooting it with her grappling gun, and began making her way to the edge of the cliff. Satya held onto her tightly as their feet began slowly stepping down the slight slope the cliff had, before Amelie’s feet gave out from her entirely. She heard Satya give a quick gasp as the two of them swung in midair for a second. But as time passed, and Amelie’s arm was shown to withstand the weight, she pressed a button on the gun and the two were slowly lowered as the cord extended itself.

Amelie perked up as she heard the sound of rockets nearby, and looked to see D.va’s mech slowly lowering itself with them, its jets aimed straight at the ground to keep Junkrat level with it. He didn’t seem to be enjoying the trip, grabbing tightly onto one of the fins for dear life. _Even his_ knees _are staining the mech,_ she thought, feeling a little queasy.

Satya held onto her a little tighter, and Amelie tilted her head so it could lean on her; it helped her ignore the straining of her arm.

D.va’s expression was completely focused through the tinted glass, trying her best to move as smoothly as possible. Amelie couldn’t blame her for the challenge; with D.va always being tightly strapped into the inside of the mech, she never had to worry much about how erratically she moved in it. And even with this new challenge, Amelie had to admit that she was flying extremely smoothly: she could probably have done a bit of ballet on it, and she barely imagined Junkrat being able to fall off.

So of course, that’s what he did.

Nearly, anyway. His hands were grimy and oily, and likely didn’t provide a good grip. She saw Junkrat lean a little too much to one side, and when he tightened his grip on the fin to restabilize himself, they simply started sliding off of the mech with him. Junkrat gave a high pitched screech as he scrambled to get back up, and D.va jolted the mech to try and move under him. Junkrat flailed his arms, not seeming to try and actually _grab_ anything, and the constant movement was making it harder for D.va to stabilize underneath him.

“Jamison,” Amelie could tell that Satya was trying to give the sternest voice she could muster. “You need to calm down.”

“Shut up, cunt!” Junkrat screamed back at her, his hands finally grabbing onto the fin. At the contact, he practically leaped onto it, wrapping his arms and legs around it as if he were giving it an over enthusiastic hug.

With the weight finally still, D.va was able to begin smoothly flying the mech again, angling it so that it was compensating for the imbalance of weight. Everything seemed to be running well again, although the two of them were noticeably lower than Amelie and Satya in their efforts.

The rest of the descent went much more smoothly afterwards, with Junkrat no longer being a problem as he decided to spend his time down the cliff desperately clinging to the fin and not speaking. Amelie felt her feet hitting solid ground, and she gently lowered Satya onto it as well. D.va tried her best to land as nicely on the ground, but considering that it was a giant machine with the added weight of a six-foot tall man it wasn’t that successful. It seemed that they had landed near the edge of the lake that the waterfall was pouring into. Amelie wondered if Junkrat would freak out at the sight.

The moment the mech hit the ground, though, Junkrat dropped off of it and began desperately holding onto the dirt below, as if he were now trying to give _it_ an over enthusiastic hug, and completely ignored the large body of water. Amelie pressed a button on the grappling gun to dislodge the hook above from the tree, and let it be as it began to reel itself in again.

D.va had exited the mech to observe the mess that Junkrat had made from sitting on it, and Amelie heard a noise that sounded both shocked and furious. The sniper quietly began walking over to the junker, who didn’t notice her approach until her heels were a few inches away from his face. He glared up at her, seemingly annoyed that she’d interrupted his apparent kissing of the ground. “What do you want?”

Amelie sighed at the rude tone, but ignored it. She put a hand on her hip, and held the other one out. Junkrat quickly stood up, looking at the outstretched hand suspiciously. “What’s this for?”

“An acknowledgement. Or, and apology, I suppose,” She tried not to look at the junker in the eye. “You were clearly uncomfortable with getting onto D.va’s mech, and yet you pulled through it anyways. And for that, I suppose I have to say thank you, or well done, or something.”

Junkrat’s eyes widened for a moment, before they suddenly brightened as a smile began to spread across his face. He grabbed Amelie with the non prosthetic arm and enthusiastically shook it, while she tried not to grimace as she felt the grime beginning to etch into her palm.

But it was worth it.

Because as Junkrat shook her hand, she grabbed onto his arm, pulled it over her shoulder, spun around, and threw him over her head.

Straight into the lake.

She hadn’t been able to throw him very far (he’s six feet tall and Amelie’s arms were already tired from holding onto Satya), so he still landed in the shallow end, with the water’s waves reaching up to at most two feet.

Amelie heard D.va and Satya give yelps of surprise behind her, although they were drowned out as Junkrat began screeching in the water and flapping his arms and legs about.

“What was that for?!” D.va yelled.

Amelie didn’t reply to them, simply cupping her mouth and shouting at the splashing junker: “That’s for calling my girlfriend a cunt!”

Junkrat didn’t respond, still screaming bloody murder, and Amelie turned back around to the shocked expressions of D.va and Satya, smiling.

“Those prosthetics are waterproof, right?”

Satya furrowed her eyebrows. “What? Of course they are.”

“Ah, that’s good. Oh, and don’t worry about him,” she jerked a thumb backwards. “Since you two weren’t involved in this plan, I take full responsibility. So, if Junkrat somehow manages to begin drowning himself in less than two feet of water, I will personally go out there and save him myself.”

She turned back around to see the growing spot of dark water that was expanding from Junkrat, and grimaced. “Even if...I really don’t want to.”

She didn’t realize that Satya had been stepping towards her until she turned around again to be met with a peck on the cheek. Her cheeks flushed at the contact as Satya gave a tired smile. “While I appreciate you defending me like that Ame, I’d rather if you didn’t try and antagonize the criminal we’re trying to bring to our side.”

Amelie gave a lopsided grin. “Sorry. The idea just came to me, and I suppose I didn’t think on it too much before acting.”

The two turned their heads to look at Junkrat, who was still flailing his arms and squawking in fear. “He... _can_ swim, right?”

“He’s _six feet tall,_ he shouldn’t _need_ to swim right now.”

D.va walked up to the two of them, watching the spectacle. “So we’re going to just wait for him to get himself back to shore?”

Amelie smiled. “Whether he needs my help or not, it should get some of the dirt off of him.”

“And perhaps alleviate his hydrophobia a bit,” Satya added.

“Of course, that too.”

 

—-

 

Angela squinted at the interface showing up in front of her eyes, displayed from her halo. She kept her gaze focused on the small house in the distance, and pressed a button on the side of the headgear. Immediately it responded, a small yellow arrow and outline of the building appearing on the interface, and she looked back down at Roadhog, who had been holding her up again.

“Alright, I’ve got its location down-“

Roadhog suddenly removed his hand out from under her again, but she was able to finish her sentence and land gracefully, now that she saw it coming. She gave him a quick glare before glancing back at the forest; sure enough, she could still see the arrow and outline appearing through them, and she pointed a finger at it.

“The town should be that way. As long as we keep heading in that direction, we should be able to make it.”

Roadhog stared at her for a few seconds, his expression covered up by the mask. Angela was about to ask what he was thinking when he spoke up. “How are you going to remember where it is.”

Angela smiled, tapping her halo. “This here can guide me there. I’ve pinpointed the location, and now I can see where it is, even through cover.”

“You didn’t tell me about this when explaining your armor,”

She gave a sheepish shrug. “I forgot about it. Since there’s not really anything around that I’ve placed a bookmark on, I suppose I didn’t get any reminders on its existence.”

“Bookmark?”

“That’s what I call it when I put a pinpoint, or a mark, like with that building in the distance. I can do it on people too, so that I can track their location. Although, it’s not completely accurate, since it has trouble tracking moving objects that aren’t in direct line of sight. It’s made better if a chip has been implanted, and with a chip I can even scan and detect the health of that person, so I immediately know who’s injured!”

Roadhog simply stared at her for a few seconds, Angela suddenly feeling uncomfortable as realized she’d just gone on another ramble about her technology. She felt a little embarrassed at being caught at such a moment, but she couldn’t help but feel happy and proud to show off what she’d created to help others. Roadhog grunted. “I don’t believe you.”

Angela had to do a double take at the line, and before she could form a coherent response she felt two fat fingers wrap around the halo and lift it away from her head.

“H-hey!” She protested as Roadhog gently placed the too-small halo on his head. She faintly saw the interface appear in front of his goggles, and he gave a hum. “How do you bookmark things?”

Angela hesitated for a beat, staring at the strange image of the gigantic criminal trying to balance her halo on his head so that he could see the relatively tiny interface. She gave a smile. “There’s a button on the side of the halo. Just keep your gaze on whatever you want to bookmark and press it, and a yellow outline and arrow should appear around it.”

Roadhog turned to look at her, staring for a few seconds. She felt uncomfortable, being looked down in what she assumed was an intense gaze, before she heard a quiet beeping sound, and looked up to see Roadhog’s fat finger on the side of her halo, staring at the pachimari in his hands.

“Did-did you just put a bookmark on that pachimari?”

It was a dumb question with an obvious answer, which probably explained why he didn’t give one as he turned to look at her again. “What happens if you’re wearing it while you’re a bookmark?”

Angela opened her mouth to provide an answer, before closing it as she realized that she didn’t have an answer for it. “Huh,” she scratched her cheek. “I suppose I’ve never tried that before. Or at least, not recently.”

She heard another beeping sound, and glanced over to see Roadhog staring at her, seemingly bookmarking her, before gently removing the halo and handing it back to her. She fit it back onto her head, quietly wondering how dirty it’d gotten after touching Roadhog, and turned on the interface; everything seemed normal.

“Seems that it doesn’t affect it. Likely because the outline and arrow are too close for me to see.”

“Disappointing,” Roadhog grumbled. “Hoping there’d be nothing but yellow.”

Angela chuckled. “Yes, that’d be quite the sight. Say, since you’ve put a bookmark on me, how about I put one on you? Just to make things even.”

Roadhog looked at her, not saying anything for a while, and this time Angela was able to pick up on the suspicion radiating from him. Not from his face, but certainly from his stance, how his grip on the pachimari tightened and how the chains rattled as he shifted his feet.

“Just in case we get separated, I should be able to find you. After all, I’m the one who can heal you, and you’re...I suppose the bodyguard? After all, who knows what we’ll find in that forest.”

Roadhog was quiet again, before he grunted. “Fine. But you’re deleting the bookmark once we get to town.”

Angela smiled, keeping her gaze on him and pressing her finger into the halo. “Deal.”

A small beep came from it, and Roadhog gave a quiet chuckle. It was rough, almost rueful. “Here I am, separated from that idiot, and I’m already someone else’s bodyguard.”

Angela snickered, a part of her admitting that it was an odd situation from both ends. “I hope I’m at least a bit better than your last client.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“I’ll warn you though, I’m not nearly as good at barbecues as he is.”

Roadhog snorted. Junkrat’s barbecue skills still seemed to be a joke between the two of them after the search through the castle. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

Angela chuckled a little, covering her mouth up with her hand and trying to calm herself down. She took a deep breath, and the two turned back to look at the forest. Angela looked down between the holes of the bridge they were standing on and pursed her lips.

“Alright, let’s head out before night comes.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am having way too much fun writing the dynamic between Junkrat and Amelie. Hopefully this chapter makes up for the length of the last one.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who're confused, you're absolutely justified

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're looking at this thinking "hey, haven't I already read this chapter?" then this message is for you. If not, just go ahead and enjoy the chapter, completely unaware of your author's mistakes. 
> 
> SO I was staring at this chapter for the past three days, because something felt /off/ about it. Takes me another day to realize that the first scene was actually supposed to go on longer than it actually did, AND WHILE I WAS WRITING I FORGOT TO PUT IN THE SECOND PART. Not only that, but it's the entire reason the scene exists in the first place. 
> 
> So yeah, that's the only thing that's been changed in this chapter, everything else is the same. 
> 
> Hope you can accept this ungraceful making up for my poor memory, and enjoy what's been added.

“You are an evil woman,” Junkrat hissed, still soaking wet. 

It had taken a couple minutes, but he’d managed to stand up on his own in the water and quickly wade himself out.  A part of her was worried if they’d just contaminated the entire water source, when even after all that time thrashing around in the lake, the water dripping off of him was still discolored. In the time that they’d waited for him to get out, Hana had wiped off all of the greasy handprints he’d left on her mech, while Widowmaker cleaned the spots where she touched him while throwing him in the lake. Hana personally thought that the joke was a bit mean spirited, considering the junker’s reaction, but she supposed scaring a major criminal wasn’t the worst thing someone could do. 

It was easy to forget sometimes, how Junkrat was responsible for countless dollars in destruction and had killed dozens of people. She always needed to remind herself about it, just in case she ever found herself feeling sorry for him again. 

It seemed he was trying to garner some amount of pity at the moment, with how much he’d complained as they were walking, still dripping wet. Hana looked over, noting that he was shivering a little. The water had been particularly cold, likely filled with melted snow, and she wondered if the junker was going to get hypothermia from being dumped in it. 

_ If he gets sick while we’re out here, we can’t get Overwatch to treat him, not without stopping the mission altogether. Not to mention he could get  _ us  _ sick too in the meantime.  _

She looked around while they walked, until her eyes finally rested upon a large break in the trees, where sunlight was shining through. It was the afternoon, so it wasn’t extremely strong, but it was still enough. She turned her mech to walk over, and heard exactly no footsteps following her. 

“Where are you going, D.Va?” She heard Symmetra’s confused voice behind her. 

“To the sunspot to dry,” she called back. “My mech’s dripping wet still, and we don’t want Junkrat getting sick.”

She heard a couple murmurs behind her, but shortly afterwards footsteps quickly began catching up to her. Hana hopped out and leaned on her mech, taking in the sunlight on her face. It was a nice sensation, and it seemed that the others were enjoying it too.  Junkrat sat down on a nearby fallen log, seemingly a little grateful to dry some of the water off, although he clearly was trying to hide it. Symmetra had made her own chair to sit down, and was passing the time by making random shapes in her hands. Widowmaker was also leaning against the mech, turning and observing a small, familiar pistol in her palm. 

_ Wait.  _

“Where’d you get that?” Hana pointed at the doctor’s pistol. 

Widowmaker lifted it up. “Oh, this is the pistol Angie dropped when she got carried off. I decided to bring it, since I was guessing that she was likely missing it right now. And better to reunite it with her sooner than later, non?”

Hana raised an eyebrow. “You’ve had it this whole time?”

“Yes, it’s been strapped to my side. You didn’t notice?”

“No, I suppose not.”

The group was quiet once again after the little conversation. It seemed no one wanted to talk, with the junker watching. Hana saw an opportunity, though. She sighed, and turned back to look at Widowmaker, still observing Mercy’s pistol. “I’m sorry, Widowmaker.”

The woman in question jerked her head up, surprised. “Sorry for what?”

“For what I said, back when we first started searching,” Hana stared at her hands as she nervously wrung them. “Here you were, worried and searching for someone you care about, and there I was, telling you that she was already dead. It was awful of me, and I shouldn’t have done it.”

She looked back up at Widowmaker, who seemed to have a sad smile on her face. “Um, apology accepted, D.Va.”

“There’s no need for code names at this point. You can call me Hana.”

“Very well. Then in that case, I request that you call me Amelie.”

“Yeah, sorry…”

“No need,” Amelie got off of the mech and patted her on the shoulder, before turning to the others. “Come on, we’ve warmed up enough, we need to keep moving while we’ve still got some daylight.”

Everyone quickly began getting up again, and as Hana got back into her mech, she heard Junkrat grumbling to himself. “Fucking finally. Couldn’t stand to hear their dumb touchy-feely shit.”

Hana was tempted to run him over, but in a surprising display of restraint, didn’t. She kept a small smile on her face for that achievement. Symmetra walked up to her side and leaned as closely as she could. “Did you wait for this long to tell Ame that?”

Hana glanced away to hide her embarrassment. “Maybe.”

“Well, better late than never, I suppose.”

“I suppose--”

Satya was never able to finish her sentence, as at that moment all three heads whipped forward at the sound of a surprised squawk coming from Junkrat. Hana lifted her cannons, ready to fire at something, and dropped them as she realized that Junkrat wasn’t in front of them at all. Everyone exchanged glances, before Amelie took a cautious step forward and cupped her mouth. “Junkrat? Where are you?”

“Agh-dammit, fuckin’ landed on my  _ tailbone!” _ Junkrat’s groans were clearly nearby, but there was a bit of an echo to it. 

Everyone took a few more steps to look, and Hana stared in shock as a sudden chasm revealed itself to her the closer she got. The thing had been well hidden in all of the bushes and grass, and Hana knew that if she hadn’t already been cautious of it, she’d likely have fallen in, same as Junkrat. She looked down, a bit of the sunlight shining through and illuminating the ground: it wasn’t particularly deep, maybe around fifteen feet, and at the bottom she could see Junkrat staring back up, a grumpy expression on his face. Hana glanced at the others, who looked back with expectant faces. Hana gave a sigh, before calling down to Junkrat, “Hold on, I can carry you out of there. Did you get badly injured?”

“Ehhh, nope. But I probably could have landed better if I didn’t have this shitty lehhhh…..”

Junkrat trailed off, shocked as Hana dropped down next to him. He was staring at something, his jaw wide open. “What is it?”

Junkrat simply lifted a limp arm to point, and when Hana followed it, she felt the hairs on her neck rise. 

There was a large, dark bloodstain further down the ditch, smashed pieces of wood scattered around it. It was massive, larger than Hana’s mech, but what stood out the most were the broken metal containers lying among all of the splinters. 

Before she could react, Junkrat had started scrambling on the stone towards the bloodstain. “Wait, Junkrat, hold on-!“

“What’s going on down there?” Symmetra’s voice called down. 

“We found blood!” Hana called back.”

“What?!”

She didn’t reply as she moved her mech to catch up to Junkrat. He was on all fours, overturning the pieces of wood and grabbing one of the metal cans. He held it in his lap, staring at it and rubbing his thumb across the yellow paint. As Hana walked up to him, he turned to look at her, pointing at the can with wide eyes. 

“These’re Roadie’s.”

Hana’s eyes skirted across the large stain; the blood was already dry and flaking, although parts of it had been stained a bit by what Hana assumed was the liquid in those cans, as they had a slightly yellow tint. Her eyes caught on a can near the edge of the puddle, completely pristine without any sort of holes in it. “Looks like they didn’t all break.”

Junkrat straightened at the comment and followed her gaze. When he saw the can, he quickly rushed over to pick it up, turning it over in his hands. He tilted it towards the ground, seeing that the medicine inside had been completely emptied. 

And then he began laughing. 

His head was thrown back, a hand covering his eyes, both relief and hysteria evident in the noise. 

“What’s going on?” A voice sounded behind them. 

Junkrat didn’t respond, but Hana turned around to see that Symmetra and Amelie had dropped down. Hana simply stepped to the side so they could see the bloodstain, and the two of them froze in shock at the sight. 

“Roadhog was definitely here,” Hana tried to say, but the volume of Junkrat’s laughter was almost drowning it out completely. 

“I told you that a little fall like that wouldn't kill Roadie! I  _ told ya! _ ”

Hana looked back to see Junkrat had hunched over the empty bottle, a manic grin on his face as he stared at the three of them. “It’s obvious he was here,” she spoke, her voice strict. “And it also explains how we weren’t able to find him before. But still, where has he gone now?”

Amelie and Symmetra walked up to Hana’s side. “Not only that, but where has  _ Angela _ gone?”

“Are there any other bloodstains here?”

Symmetra paled a little, before swiveling her head around to take a look. She looked back, and shook her head. “Then she must have gotten separated from Roadhog before he landed,” Hana concluded. 

“That’s a relief,” Symmetra sighed. “Who knows what would have happened if Roadhog had found her.” 

—-

 

“At least tell me how your breathers work. It’s only fair, considering how much I’ve told you about my own equipment.”

Roadhog remained silent, and Angela groaned in frustration. “Can you at least tell me  _ one  _ thing? Honestly?”

He turned his head to look at her. 

“Do the canisters actually only work on you or did you just say that to shut me up?”

Roadhog didn’t reply for a few seconds, before turning back and continuing to walk. “You were really annoying.”

Angela gave a huff of anger. “Why are you so adamant about this? Can’t you tell me more about what you have, since I’ve already done the same? Wouldn’t that be fair?”

“The world’s not fair,”

“Oh,  _ please,  _ it’s a bottle of medicine, it’s not going to kill you if you talk about it!”

“Same if I don’t.”

Angela groaned, leaning her head back a little. “I don’t understand. This is just like the cliff again. Why don’t you trust me? What are you so afrai-”

Angela’s rant was abruptly cut off when she crashed into Roadhog’s palm, which was held out in front of her, preventing her from moving. “What are you doing-”

“Shut up,” Roadhog growled, his aggressive tone surprising her. He turned his head around, seemingly looking for something. Angela tried to look too, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. 

And that was when she heard it. A stomping of feet, the familiar whirring of machinery, and the faint clicking of bullets being loaded. 

“Bastion!” Angela yelled before ducking for cover, just as a hail of bullets broke the trees in front of them in two, covering the ground in shards of wood. 

Angela had managed to crouch behind some trees before the firing started, leaving her out of the omnic’s line of sight. Roadhog, however, wasn’t nearly as quick. He had tried moving to the side, but the bastion had immediately spotted him and aimed its rusted barrel down at him. Bullets tore through his side, and Angela heard him give a grunt of pain as he hunched over, pressing a hand down on one of the bloodier wounds. His entire left arm was riddled with holes, and a few of them had made it to his stomach, which was slowly rising and falling as he struggled to breathe. 

The bastion unit kept its barrel aimed at him, and Angela prepared to hear another deafening string of bullets, but found herself freezing when she heard a loud  _ click  _ coming from the omnic. She looked over, seeing that the barrel of the gun refusing to turn, and felt shock course through her. With all of the years of wear and rust, there was no way the bastion could work as well. Its gun must have gotten jammed, she realized. 

The basiton realized this too, as it unfurled from its turret mode to reveal a sinister, glowing red eye staring down at the wounded junker. The thing looked to be decades old; part of its left arm was missing, many of its parts were bent at awkward angles, and from her viewpoint Angela could see that the side of its head was torn open, revealing a glowing blue core inside. 

_ The core!  _ Her eyes widened at the sight as the omnic began making steps towards Roadhog, loading its gun with more bullets. She looked back down at the staff gripped tightly in her hands, and squeezed it.

_ The most vulnerable part of the bastion unit, left in the open.  _ She thought, closing her eyes for a moment. It was only for a moment though, as her eyes snapped open again and she dashed out from behind the tree. The bastion’s back was to her, giving her to perfect opening: she lifted the staff over her shoulder, and with as much strength as she could slammed the end of it straight into the opening in its head, coming into direct contact with the sensitive core. 

She felt satisfaction course through her as she saw the bastion crumple at the contact, falling over onto its side. Angela saw that the blue cube in its head had a massive dent in it as the omnic slammed into the ground. 

It wasn’t dead though; it was twitching uncontrollably, with sparks coming out of the cranium. Angela lifted the staff above her head, and slammed it straight down and into the head, nearly coming out the other side. The bastion gave one final shudder, before the light in its eyes slowly blinked out, and its head lopsidedly hit the ground. 

Angela stared down at the metal body, her staff still embedded in its head, nearly panting from the adrenaline that was coursing through her. A part of her brain was still processing the series of events that had just occurred, but luckily she was well practiced in the experience, and she could practically feel her mind catching up. 

She heard a familiar sound of chains moving just as the thought  _ Roadhog needs help  _ popped into her head. 

She looked up to see the junker struggling to hold himself up in a sitting position with the uninjured arm, and the bloodied one barely gripping the scrap gun. However, even as it shook, she could clearly tell that it was aimed at her. “Heal me,” Roadhog demanded, his tone just as aggressive as before. 

Angela’s eyes narrowed at the demand, and her grip on her staff tightened. WIth one motion, she pulled it out of the dead bastion with more force than was likely necessary. Keeping her back straight, she calmly walked towards him, his gun still trying to stay focused on her, and activated the staff. A golden light wrapped around Roadhog, although most of it was gathered around his arm, which had dropped the gun in relief. As seconds passed by, Roadhog’s breathing slowly smoothed out, each one a little less ragged and pained as the last, until it finished with a long, deep sigh of relief. 

Angela didn’t look him in the eye during the whole thing, and Roadhog seemed to notice. His emotionless goggles remained focused on her, and she doubted that she’d be able to figure out what in the world he was thinking. The two of them stayed quiet for a few minutes, the only sound being from her staff. It wasn’t until nearly all of the bullet wounds were healed, and Roadhog began standing up did she speak. 

“You should know that that was completely unnecessary.”

Roadhog simply stopped, and turned his head to look at her. She was starting to get a little tired of how much she had to decode every time he did that. “Back in the ditch, I healed you once I realized you were still alive, and I didn’t need a gun pointed at me to do it. And I’m getting tired of it, seeing how little you trust me. Here I am, being forced to trust you at every hour to not simply turn around and fill me with scrap, and yet you can barely expect me, a  _ doctor,  _ to heal you when you’re injured,” She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “It’s frustrating. It’s  _ ridiculous _ . It’s  _ idiotic. _ ”

She looked back up to glare at Roadhog, who’s gaze hadn’t left her ever since her little rant started. She wasn’t sure about it, but the sight of the same expressionless goggles staring at her, even after such an anger-filled (and quite frankly rude) conversation, drained whatever frustration that was left in her. She sighed. “I’m sorry, I lost myself there, it’s fine, I understand if-”

“The trusting end up dead.”

Angela’s eyes snapped open and she looked at the Junker. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “In Australia. You get used to it.”

“But haven’t you been around the world? Haven’t you met other people?”

Roadhog scratched his chin for a moment, thinking, before looking at her again. “We tried working with a suit. He just sold us to the cops, so we hung him.”

Angela’s eyes widened, her minds thinking back to news reports of a blown up skyscraper, the main CEO of it found with a chain around his neck. The Junkers were highly implied to be involved, and she supposed she’d gotten a full confirmation now. “I-I see.”

Angela released her grip on the button on the staff as the two began moving through the woods, overstepping the bastion’s corpse. The two walked in silence for a little while, both of them a bit more alert than before; Roadhog’s gun was at the ready and fully loaded, and Angela had her staff held tightly to her chest as they walked. She stared up at the back of Roadhog, wondering what to say; She had an idea, but wasn't sure if it was smart. She sighed. She’d already scolded Roadhog a couple times throughout these past couple of days and hadn’t gotten immediately strangled from it, so she supposed there was no point in hesitating now. 

“Look, I don’t know how much this means to you, but I’d like to let you know that I would  _ never _ leave someone to die if I could help it. And if more of those bastion units are still active, then I don’t want to be held at gunpoint for every one we find.”

Roadhog looked back again, and nodded with a grunt before turning back. It seemed that he was no longer in the mood for talking, and Angela found herself left alone in the silence, quietly wondering when they’d run into another omnic, and whether she’d be able to fight it off on her own again. 

 

\---

 

“One of our bastions was destroyed, back behind us.”

Moira and Reaper both turned to look at Sombra, who was staring intently at the violet screen in front of her. “By what?” Reaper’s scratchy voice irritated her ears. 

“Not sure. These bastions are so old they can’t even relay data remotely. If we want to see what destroyed it, we’d have to go find the body and remove it manually.”

“So you’re suggesting that we go out to manually grab a robot’s memories, just to see how whatever destroyed it is likely miles away by then?”

“Well, when you put it like that, of course it sounds a little dumb,” Sombra shrugged. “But whatever happened to it, it ran into  _ something.  _ Which means that it either ran into the search party, or the people they’re searching for. Either way, finding its corpse could lead us to a trail.”

She swiveled around to face Moira. “You’re right though. They’d be long gone by then, so it’s a stupid idea. But wandering around in a giant forest with literally no direction? Probably an even more stupid idea. So how about it?”

Reaper growled. “Watch your tone, with the both of us.”

“I’m just being honest. Besides, I’m respecting higher-ups: I give them the information, they make the decision.”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“Enough of it,” Moira’s voice sounded extremely tired. “We’ll search for this destroyed bastion of yours, see if a trail’s been left behind. But if nothing’s left, we’re going to the village. Understood?”

Reaper nodded, seemingly satisfied with the plan, and Sombra couldn’t help but shrug again. She looked back to her screen, checking for the last marked location of the bastion, before a small notification appeared on her screen. She expanded it, and gave a wide grin at the sight. She lifted a finger to catch everyone’s attention. “Actually, before we head to the bastion, do you think we could make a quick stop?”

The two of them sighed. “To where? And why?” Reaper’s tone was so exasperated that Sombra had to stifle a giggle. She turned the screen so that it faced them, showing them both the image of a ruined OR14.

“I don’t know, I guess something tells me that this would  _ probably  _ come in handy.”

  
  



	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to delay this chapter in order to avoid that mess that was chapter eight, feel pretty good about this one.

The sun had set not long after the search party had discovered the ditch Roadhog had landed in, and Satya found herself having trouble seeing in all of the darkness. Even if the moon wasn’t just a sliver of light, the trees above were covering up so much of the sky that the illumination it could provide was negligible. Not only that, they weren’t able to find any sort of blood trail leading out of the ditch before night came, meaning that Roadhog had completely healed himself while down there.

As such, there wasn’t a single idea as to what they could do from there. 

_ Of course this wouldn’t be that easy,  _ Satya thought to herself. They had been moving in circles from the ditch to see if they could find any leads, but none were found and now the daylight was gone. She looked at the rest of the party: D.va was walking ahead of the group, her pink mech pushing back all of the branches in front of them. Amelie was walking by her side, and Junkrat had been placed in the center of them all. They all looked as if they were ready pass out on their feet (except for D.va, both because Satya couldn’t see her face and that she seemed far too accustomed to functioning without sleep).

“I think it’s best if we stop for the night,” she announced, trying to keep the exhaustion out of her voice. Everyone turned to look at her, relieved and ready to agree with her. 

They set up camp pretty quickly after that, finding a spot slightly less covered in pine needles and settling in. Hana volunteered to keep watch first, and even though she looked just as tired as them, she seemed content with the job, so Satya didn’t object. “I’ll keep watch after you, and then Amelie, okay?” She told D.va as she settled down. 

D.va nodded, her legs crossed and sitting on top of her parked mech. Satya smiled and said goodnight, before lying down and falling asleep almost immediately.

A few painfully brief hours later, Satya felt something nudging her shoulder. She blearily opened her eyes to see pink whiskers staring down at her. “My turn already?” She murmured. 

“Yeah,” D.va whispered, her voice a little slow. “C’mon, get up so I can go to sleep already.”

Satya laughed a little as she sat up. “Don’t worry, I will.”

D.va nodded, rubbing her eye, before standing up and walking over to her mech. “It’s a quiet night today,”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah. But now I feel even more tired because of it,” she mumbled as she began climbing into her mech. 

Satya tilted her head. “You’re planning on sleeping in there?”

“Of course. The inside here’s padded and built to hold me for long periods of time. Not to mention it’s warm too. Plus, it lets me be prepared in case anything surprises us.”

“Hm. Alright, I suppose that’s logical. Rest well.”

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll try.”

Satya chuckled to herself, before turning back to stare into the brush. D.va was right: it was a quiet night, and that silence made it easier to nod off. Satya kept her gaze focused on the trees, trying to keep her senses alert, especially her ears. With the darkness of the forest, she knew she was likely to hear any sort of movement before seeing it. 

To try and keep herself awake, Satya began thinking to herself. At first her line of thought was just about the next place they planned to go once daytime came again, but as time moved on it lead to just her thinking about Angela. 

No, not thinking.  _ Worrying.  _

Worrying where Angela could possibly be. What she’d run into. If she was even  _ alive.  _ They knew that Roadhog was still out there somewhere, still a danger even if he didn’t have weapons. Had they run into each other? What if they only found Roadhog? Junkrat would likely turn his backs on them in that moment, and who knew what would happen then. 

Symmetra pressed her face into the palms of her hands. This search party had been a terrible idea, she’d known it from the start. And yet, why did she agree to go anyway?

If they ever found Angela, she’d be furious with them. Not just because they’d agreed to work with Junkrat to search for her, but because they’d gone out into the middle of the woods, against Overwatch’s wishes, just for her. And Angela always preferred the needs of the many over the few (something Satya found herself disagreeing with whenever Angela was the “few”). Not only that, but for all they knew, Angela was doing fine surviving in the woods, ready to wait for Overwatch to legally retrieve her. That was probably what was happening now. 

Probably. 

Satya hated uncertainties. Maybe that’s why she went on this ridiculous plan with Amelie. Just like her, Satya hated having nothing to do, not  _ knowing  _ what to do. 

After all, who knew? Perhaps Angela wasn’t alright at all, and needed help as soon as possible. 

The sudden, sharp crack of a twig snapped Satya out of her train of thought. She stood straight, keeping a hand over her mouth and looking around. Nothing but darkness and silence surrounded her. She stood up slowly, carefully, perking her ears.  _ Was that twig just some wild animal? My imagination? _

And that’s when she heard it. Not just a twig this time, but a crushing noise, like a branch was being stomped on. And then another one. They were a bit far away, but it was clear something was walking closer and closer. Satya took a few steps towards it, pushing some branches out of the way to see if she could get a look at it. 

She was met with a glowing red eye, further in the darkness. It didn’t seem to be facing her, but it was still near enough to unnerve Satya as she recognized what that light meant. 

_ Bastion unit.  _

Satya quickly stepped back, turning to the group to wake them up. The omnic hadn’t seemed to notice yet, so if she was able to get everyone moving quietly, then they could avoid a conflict. 

She had only taken a step towards the group, when at that moment the bastion made another step and crushed what sounded like another branch, and she could only assume Junkrat had heard it. His eyes snapped open, and he straightened up immediately. “Bots!” He yelled. 

Everything seemed to happen at once at that moment: the footsteps of the bastion suddenly became faster as everyone startled awake at once. Junkrat was already on his feet as everyone got up, and Satya yelled out, “There’s a bastion unit here! We need to leave!”

Everyone quickly got up after hearing that, the metal footsteps already close enough to be drowning out some of their cries of alarm. A broken down bastion suddenly burst through the trees, its eye red and gun ready. Cracks echoed through the forest as it fired on the group, and Satya instinctively shut her eyes at the noise, but as moments passed, nothing seemed to have made impact. She slowly opened her eyes again to see D.va’s mech standing over them, the defense matrix put in the omnic’s face. “Move! My matrix won’t last forever!” She called out. 

That call snapped Satya and Amelie into motion, the both of them quickly standing up and beginning to run. Junkrat didn’t immediately respond, and as such Satya grabbed onto his wrist (internally cringing at it) and pulled him along. 

“H-hey! Wait!” He protested as he began getting dragged through the forest, D.va’s pink mech getting more obscured by the trees. “What are you running away for? It’s just one measly bot! Watch, I’ll turn him into scrap myself, no time!”

“Are you crazy?!” Amelie yelled back. Loud footsteps reverberated behind them, and Satya looked to see that D.va’s mech running to catch up with them. However, the red eye of the bastion wasn’t too far behind her. “You don’t even have any weapons on you!”

“That’s never stopped me before!” Junkrat responded, a wide grin on his face, shaking off Satya’s grip, which reestablished itself at his elbow almost immediately. Satya watched as Junkrat began fiddling with the back of the prosthetic arm that she had made for him.  _ What does he hope to achieve doing that, and while we’re running no less?  _

She got her answer soon enough as the prosthetic arm suddenly detached itself from where Junkrat had been poking at it. “What are you-“

“Just watch! This is how a  _ real  _ professional does it!”

And Satya did as so, watching almost helplessly as Junkrat grabbed one of the prosthetic fingers between his teeth, pulling it clean off. And without another word, he tossed it over his shoulder, making a small arc towards the incoming bastion. 

“What can that arm possibly-“

Satya’s question was cut off as an explosion ruptured from behind them. She looked back to see the bastion in even more pieces, a plume of fire having already consumed it. “A bomb?!”

“What’d I tell ya!  _ Professional _ !”

The entire group came to a halt to stare at the smoldering pieces of metal behind them. “You-“ Satya stammered. “You turned your arm into a  _ bomb _ ?”

“Smart move, wasn’t it?” Junkrat grinned. 

“You turned your arm into a bomb. In just those few seconds?”

“Ehhh, not exactly. Been working on that arm for a couple days now, otherwise that explosion wouldn’t have been  _ nearly  _ as huge!” He gave a maniacal giggle. 

Everyone was silent after that, simply staring as the fire continued to die down, leaving nothing but the charred body of the bastion unit. Even Junkrat’s made laughter had died down into a content sigh at the sight of the flames. However, a few moments later, he cleared his throat and . “Um, you can make another arm, right?” He asked, waving the stumps that was his arm. 

Satya narrowed her eyes at him. “Yes,” she growled, gritting her teeth. 

“Right now?”

“It’s possible.”

“Could you make me one, then?”

Everyone was quiet again, Satya clenching her fists and biting her tongue from lashing out at the junker.  _ You said it yourself. It’s best you don’t antagonize the criminal we’re supposed to be working with.  _

But she looked back at Junkrat’s wide eyes, staring back up at her like a dog asking for table scraps after destroying one of the carpets. So expectant, like she was just something to make neat tools for him. 

_ Oh, to hell with it.  _

“Absolutely not.”

Junkrat’s face fell. “What? Why not?!”

“You broke our rules. I’d say losing an arm is proper punishment for that. And don’t you  _ dare  _ try and turn your leg into a bomb too.”

Junkrat bit his lip a little, and Satya narrowed her eyes. “In fact, just to be safe, I’ll just replace the one you have now.”

She took a step towards him, who was clearly surprised by the approach. He lifted his arms, clearly intending to fight her for the leg—confirming her suspicions about what he did with it.

She sighed, stopping her approach. “Junkrat, please don’t fight me on this. We just can’t let you have an  _ explosive leg  _ with you. In fact, considering how much time it took you to do so, we might have to replace your prosthetics periodically.”

Junkrat glanced around him, at Amelie’s stern face and rifle in hand, at the raised guns of D.va’s mech, and gave a loud groan. He tightly crossed his arms over his chest, sitting down on the ground with his leg sticking out. Satya gave a quiet nod and bent down to begin disconnecting it from him. 

As D.va quietly watched the process, Amelie spoke up. “As soon as you’re done removing his leg, we’ll have to keep moving, and you make his leg as we go, okay?”

Satya looked up in surprise. “What for?”

“It’s clear there’s still some active bastions in this forest, and that explosion will draw them. We’ll need to move away from it as soon as we can.”

Hearing a small click coming from Junkrat’s leg set everyone in motion: D.va moved next to Junkrat, who grabbed onto one of her cannons to support himself, surprisingly withheld anger in his expression. Amelie bent down to take the leg, but Satya stopped her. “We can’t weigh ourselves down.”

Amelie nodded, and the group began moving out. Satya stayed at the back, her hands already at work at forming a new blueprint for Junkrat’s leg, hopefully one less susceptible to his tinkering. As infuriating as the junker was, Satya was partially grateful for the new job he’d given her. It forced her thoughts away from how Angela was doing. 

Because now that it was clear dangerous omnics were wandering this forest, Satya’s fear for Angela’s life had only magnified. 

 

—-

 

The sun was beginning to go down, and ironically it was when the light started fading did Angela finally realize what was going on with Roadhog. They way he kept stopping for random times ahead of him, how he kept his head tilted towards the ground, or how he was seemingly bending down to pick something up. And Angela hadn’t even noticed it. 

Well, she had spotted his odd behavior  _ hours  _ ago, but it wasn’t until the late afternoon did she realize why. She stared at one of his hands ahead of her, clenched into a fist, and she saw something white and fuzzy slip out of it. She walked up to it, carefully picking it up. 

It was stuffing. 

“Roadhog?” She asked slowly. He turned his head a little. “Why are you carrying this?” She held it up.

Roadhog stopped walking, his fist tightening but not immediately speaking. Angela knew to wait for a response: if he genuinely wanted to answer, he’d give it eventually, and until then she’d just have to exercise her patience. 

Considering the kinds of patients she’d had over the years (including one particular Shimada and a formerly cold-blooded assassin), it wasn’t a too difficult task. 

Roadhog turned to face her, opening both his palms upwards, and showed what was filling each: one was a large pile of stuffing, some of it dangerously close to slipping off of his palm, and the other the pachimari plush, which had had been partially depleted of said stuffing and had its cute expression now filled with the wrinkles of the fabric. 

He’d strapped his weapons to his belt and back to allow him to carry the pachimari’s parts. She just stared back and forth between them and Roadhog’s face, dumbstruck, hoping for an answer. 

“He got shot by the bastion.” 

She looked over at the pachimari, and saw a large, clean tear through the eye, some stuffing sticking out of it. 

“You’ve been holding onto the pachimari’s stuffing rather than your weapons?”

No response.

“Even though we know there are bastions roaming around here?”

He turned his head away to avoid looking at her. 

Angela gave a deep sigh, covering her face with her hands. She took a few moments breathing and clearing her mind, before groaning and holding out one of her hands. “I’m the one without the weapons, so how about I carry it for you?”

Roadhog turned back to look at her in what she assumed was surprise, but he didn’t move to hand her the plushy. He tilted his head, seemingly thinking about something. “Can you sew?”

“What?” The question wasn’t what she expected him to say at that moment, and as such took a moment to register. “Y-yes, although I usually work on people.”

“People?”

“Yes, I’m a doctor. In case I’m separated from my staff, I have some needle and thread to stitch wounds together.”

Angela flinched back as Roadhog suddenly shoved the sad, wilted pachimari in her face. “Fix him.”

“What?!”

“You have needle and thread.”

“What-not the kind for fabric!” Angela stomped a foot. “Those are specially for-for  _ people _ ! Flesh, not fabric!” 

“Fix him,” He insisted, pushing the pachimari further into her face. She put her hands up, trying to push it back. 

“No! And don’t even  _ try  _ and threaten to shoot me to make me do it, I know your bluff!”

Roadhog didn’t move, and neither did his hand, despite Angela trying to shove it. He simply stared at her with those emotionless goggles, motionless. She simply glared at him for a few seconds, before sighing and giving up. 

“Look, how about this: I’ll carry the pachimari and the stuffing, and once we get to the town, I’ll stitch it up, alright? They’ll have the proper thread and needle for this kind of stuff.”

Roadhog tilted his head, contemplating the offer for a few seconds, before nodding and handing the pachimari to her. He turned back around, unstrapping the gun from his back and continuing to move. Angela kept behind him, hunching a little as she walked. She looked up at the sky, seeing it already pretty dark, and thought of how much harder it was going to be to spot any enemies coming at them. 

_ I can’t believe I’m relying on this man to fight off bastions and keep us alive. _

 

\---

 

A loud boom that shook the earth jolted Angela awake from her bed of grass. She quickly sat up, seeing Roadhog--who had been keeping watch earlier that night--staring up into the sky, a red glow illuminating his face. Angela followed his gaze, and saw a plume of smoke rising in the trees, a few scraps of flame still floating in the air. Roadhog turned to look at Angela, and the two exchanged a quick glance and a nod. “Bastion turned into a tank?”

Roadhog grunted, nodding. 

Angela quickly stood up, her brow furrowed. “I wonder what set it off. Maybe a deer?”

Roadhog simply shrugged, turning and beginning to walk away from the source of the explosion. “Don’t need to find out.”

Angela nodded, picking up her pace to catch up with him. He turned his head once he saw her catch up to his side. “Where’s the town?”

Angela tapped on the side of her halo, looking at the yellow outline in the distance. “That way,” she pointed. “We can make a quick detour to try and avoid the bastion, and then get back on track.”

Roadhog nodded again, and the two of them began walking in silence as usual. Angela stole a quick glance back at the thick column of smoke still rising from the trees, even though the fire seemed to have mostly died down. She shuddered, glad that they weren’t there when the bastion went off. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my name is Mary Sue and today in my TED Talk I'll break down how the Pachimari is symbolic of the growing relationship between Roadhog and Mercy throughout the story, before moving on to talk about the general way objects help connect people throughout the world, even through great differences. My first evidence is


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So halfway through working on this I was planning to tell you guys that we're about 2/3rds through the story, and then uhhhhhh....this chapter has only half the scenes I planned for it. 
> 
> So this story might be a bit longer than I predicted.

Sombra crouched down to stare at the crumpled body of the bastion unit in front of her, her purple display showing the various memory files it was holding. She pushed it to the side for the moment as she observed the various injuries of the omnic, Reaper and Moira at her side and doing the same. The damage to the core in its head didn’t seem to have come from a bullet, with the area of impact being too large. 

_ What, did someone punch it or something?  _ Sombra pursed her lips. She glanced over at the purple display, dragging it back over and beginning to quickly swipe through each memory. It didn’t take long for her to get to the latest, and she pressed the screen to play back those last few minutes. In it, she saw Roadhog crouching on the ground, his arm and stomach bloody, his breaths heavy and ragged. He looked awful, and he didn’t seem to have any of those cans on him.  _ Did he run out? _

Then, before Sombra could wonder how Roadhog could have defeated the bastion in his state, the point of view suddenly jolted to the side as the bastion slammed into the ground, and in another moment the footage was over. Sombra furrowed her eyebrows. Roadhog had still been several feet away from bastion when it was destroyed.  _ Someone’s helping him? Who? _

It couldn’t be Junkrat, he was still with Overwatch. If he’d managed to escape, Sombra was sure that she’d have heard it by now. The same applied to the search party too. She looked over the scene again, trying to see if a bit of the attacker showed up in the bastion’s line of sight, and that’s when she realized something was missing. 

_ Where are the rest of Roadhog’s injuries?  _

The only ones that he seemed to have were the bullet wounds from the bastion. But considering that he fell off of a cliff, shouldn’t he have some broken bones, some bruises, maybe some wood stuck in him too?

But there weren't any of those things. Just the bullet wounds. 

_ He’s been healed? _

A wide grin stretched itself across Sombra’s face.  _ Is that doctor really with him? Now  _ that  _ I have to see. _

Reaper leaned over to look at the screen, but the video was already over, and Sombra dismissed the display for good measure. “What did you find?” he growled. 

Sombra shrugged, looking up at him with a bored expression. “It’s just Roadhog. He seems to be all on his own. He got injured though, so maybe there’s a blood trail somewhere here?”

_ If there isn’t, then all the more evidence that the doctor’s with him.  _

Everyone looked down and around the destroyed bastion, but aside from the pool of blood a few feet away, there wasn’t any left. “He must still have some of those inhalers of his, if he stopped his bleeding,” Moira commented, frowning. 

Reaper nodded. “We’ll have to be careful of him.”

Everyone began moving again after that, making detours to activate any nearby omnics that were still in any sort of functional state. 

With the time their little search took up, it didn’t take long for the sun to set, but they kept moving throughout most of the night. With the modifications on all three of them, sleep was less of a necessity. 

Less, though. Not completely gone. 

A few hours later, they all began settling down, with Reaper taking the first watch. After that, Moira took the next. 

And then it was finally Sombra’s turn. 

She stared at the sky as the moon slowly crawled across it. She opened up her display to check the time: 3 AM. It wouldn’t be another hour until they were supposed to get moving again. 

Sombra grinned: it was perfect.

She stood up, making sure not to make any noise as she did so. She quietly waved a hand in front of her face, the familiar feeling of the cloak descending upon her. 

She left the camp that night, a little while before the rain began to descend on the forest. 

 

\---

 

Roadhog and Mercy had woken up at four AM in the morning to cold rain pouring down onto them. Mercy’s hair seemed to be almost halfway soaked through by the time they got up, her bangs hanging in front of her face and making her squint. Roadhog didn’t experience similar issues, with his neatly tied hair and goggles. 

It had been a long night for the both of them, although certainly not an unfamiliar one for Roadhog. It brought him back to the days of fighting in the omnic crisis, lying in wait to hear a familiar sound of moving metallic parts. And afterwards, they became nights of light sleeping, prepared for thieves and rival junkers. 

Needless to say, he’d been put in a particularly bad mood. 

Mercy seemed to be in one as well, although it seemed more attributed to the rain rather than the night before. 

She walked by his side, her arms tightly wrapped around herself and the pachimari plush as she tried to keep herself under as many nearby trees to keep herself at least a little dry. She didn’t seem to be shivering though, which either meant she was used to this kind of temperature or she was like Roadhog, and very good at holding herself back from shaking. 

Probably the only time he had truly trembled was when the radiation first swept through Australia, and Roadhog had had to spend months accustoming himself to it all. 

Great. Now his mood was even worse. 

It made a small part of Roadhog worried, worried that Mercy was going to try and say something to him; she tended to try and fill up the silences that Roadhog was perfectly comfortable with leaving empty, and considering she’d already gotten him angry without even doing or trying anything, he could only guess what would happen if she opened her mouth. 

Roadhog adjusted his grip on the two weapons in his hands, the rainwater making them slip out of place. He grunted, mostly to himself, hoping that the bastions had decided to rest in this rain and that he wouldn’t need to fight with all of his tools covered in water. 

He looked up at the sky through the trees, trying to see where the dark clouds spread across it ended. And maybe the trees provided a shit window to the sky or the cloud was that big, because he couldn’t see a single end to the grey above them. 

In fact, the clouds had all seemed to have gotten even darker since the last time he’d looked. 

The feeling of something small, the size of a pebble, bouncing off of his goggle confirmed it. He raised a hand, feeling the water break apart on his arm, and that’s when he felt it again. A small little white dot pricked into him, tumbling to the ground. Mercy seemed to have noticed what he was doing, and had begun silently imitating him. The hail became even more apparent as it crashed against the doctor’s armor, making much louder tapping sounds. 

Roadhog gave a deep, exhausted sigh, and looked over at Mercy, who seemed to be just as tired with the weather as he was. She quickly walked over to a nearby tree, picking up dead branches that had fallen near it, checking each one for its length. 

“I’ll make a little shelter for now, we should stop for at least until the hail clears up. Maybe even the rain too.”

Roadhog nodded, agreeing to the hail as it quickly began speeding up around him, but he wondered if it was really worth it to wait for as long as the rain. He looked back up to the sky, and found himself only able to guess the amount of clouds that were still up there, as his vision was filled with little white dots rushing towards him and bouncing off of the glass of his goggles. 

The sound was really annoying. 

Roadhog sighed again, walking over to the tree Mercy was working on, and sat down nearby. He leaned his back against the tree, making sure he was away from the doctor as she worked; the last thing he wanted in this weather was her nagging voice, maybe telling him he was in the way. 

She had set the pachimari down onto one of the roots of the tree that was sticking out. It still looked sad and pathetic, being even more deflated than the day before. Next to it, Mercy had set the stuffing down, which up to this point had found its way to get caught in pieces of nature they passed by: twigs, dead leaves, pine needles, bits of sap, even some rocks. At that point, Roadhog wondered if the ball was being held together by all of it. He quietly picked up the pachimari plush, gently placing it into his lap. 

Mercy hummed a little to herself, and Roadhog hung back his head. After a few days of walking with the doctor, he’d noticed some patterns with her. More specifically, when she was most likely to try and talk to him. The most obvious tell was that she’d usually try and do something fidgety: wringing her hands, muttering to herself, gaining a sudden interest in the surrounding forest, humming, they all showed that Mercy was seemingly dying of boredom and somehow found Roadhog as the best solution for that problem. 

Well, at least the humming meant she wasn’t in the mood to nag at Roadhog, or be angry at him in general: that was when she was most annoying, second only to her demands about his breathers. 

Sure enough to Roadhog’s predictions, Mercy spoke up. But he had been expecting perhaps another question about his medicine, maybe discussing about their plans with the town. But no, he didn’t get either of those. 

“Are you used to the cold, Roadhog?”

He turned his head to her in surprise. She stared back, shrugging her shoulders. 

“Australia has an extremely warm climate, even before, um….the incident. But considering that you’ve travelled far more than the others there, are you more used to these colder weathers?”

He turned his head to look at the forest, at the hail hitting his feet as they stretched out from underneath the tree. “No.”

“Oh?” Mercy sounded a little surprised, but it was clear her mind wasn’t focused there. “That’s good to know.”

He heard the rustling of branches to his side, and saw that Mercy was changing her roof a little, making it a bit wider and a bit taller. It already seemed to be working pretty well, the dripping water from the tree being blocked out by it. 

“I’ll try and make this shelter to fit you better,” Mercy explained as she worked away. “Considering I’m more used to the cold, you need this more. Low temperatures can suppress the immune system if you’re not careful.”

Roadhog stared at her for a few seconds.

_ Cold?  _

He wasn’t sure why, but the word caught something in him, set off a train of thought. He saw colors, objects dancing in his mind’s eye: ice, snow, wind, blue, a pair of eyes, they were all cold. 

They all came together, creating a slim figure that he saw standing in the distance, on the tower of a ruined Eichenwalde castle. 

“You like the cold?”

Mercy chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Well, I wouldn’t say I  _ like  _ it, per say, I’m just quite used to it.”

“Like the assassin?”

Mercy stopped. She didn’t just freeze, she just completely stopped, every part of her did. She stopped working, she stopped moving—hell, from his angle Roadhog could see that she’d stopped blinking. 

They were both quiet for a moment, their silence being filled with the thousands of icy pebbles raining down a few feet away. As even more time passed, Roadhog wondered how she was going to respond: he was guessing she’d avoid the question. After all, with his refusal to give answers, it’d make sense she’d do the same. 

His speculations were stopped when he heard what sounded like an almost bemused sigh come from her. And after that, she began to laugh a little. It was small, dry laugh, something you’d give after an exhausting day of work. She covered her face with her hand and sighed, before walking over to Roadhog’s side, and plopping down next to him, her legs crossed. 

“What do you want to know about her?”

Roadhog found himself unable to immediately answer for a couple of reasons. First off, this was the first time he’d seen the doctor so openly willing to answer questions, especially about what he assumed was personal. The second major problem he suddenly found himself facing with her is that he didn't’ have a proper answer for her question. What  _ did  _ he want to know? Why had he even brought the sniper up in the first place? He decided to speak the first thing that’d been on his mind. 

“Why’s she blue.”

“She’s not anymore, you know,” Mercy pursed her lips. “But before that, she had several modifications made to her body, one of which was lowering her heart rate, although I doubt that’s the only contributing factor.”

Roadhog grunted, mostly satisfied with the answer, even if he couldn’t completely understand the science behind it. He admitted, seeing her for the first time had struck a bit of his curiosity, but considering he’d been in the middle of robbing a bank at the time, it hadn’t been that high of a priority to ask about. “How’d you fix her?”

“If you’re asking for the procedures, you’ll probably just listen to me prattle on about medical jargon. If you're wondering how I did all of it without dying, I can’t answer that for you,” Mercy sighed, resting her chin in her hand. “She approached me, I suppose. She  _ wanted  _ to get better, in a way. That’s all.”

Mercy began to snicker a little. “In fact, she approached me in the middle of a  _ battlefield.  _ It was the only way she knew to get to me without Talon noticing.”

Her laughter slowly subsided into a pleasant sigh, and she leaned back onto the tree Roadhog was on. “So how did you meet Junkrat?”

“Huh?”

“You heard me. I told you about Amelie, so now tell me about your friends. Or friend, I guess. How did you and Junkrat meet?”

Roadhog hesitated for a second, but then decided there was no need to lie. “Bar fight?”

“Meaning you two fought together in a bar, or fought each other?”

“He paid me to.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question.” She commented nonchalantly, reaching to grab her Caduceus staff. She dragged it onto her lap, opening up a panel on it and beginning to tinker with it. 

“Some punks were bothering him. Paid me to beat them.”

“Ah, so that’s how you became his bodyguard, huh?” 

“Offered to pay me twenty-five percent.”

“That doesn’t sound right from the reports I’ve read.”

“It’s not. He forgot it.”

Mercy gave out a burst of surprised laughter at that comment, lurching forward a little. “That makes more sense!”

Roadhog chuckled a little alongside her, although it was quiet enough that she didn’t seem to notice.

Mercy’s laughter died down a little, her gaze extending past the forest. The smile on her face slowly faded. “Although, with Junkrat in Overwatch, what will your money deal be now?”

Roadhog tilted his head. “The same.”

“What, you’re going to break him out?” She snorted a little. 

He simply nodded in reply. 

“Of course,” she sighed, resting her head in her hands. The two stayed quiet for a little longer, observing the sheet of icy pebbles pelting down up ahead. Roadhog looked up at the tree, thankful for its strong cover, as any of the hail that managed to get through its branches wasn’t nearly at its stinging speed by the time it hit them. Roadhog watched the few dots of white bounce off of him and melt on the ground next to his body heat. 

“You know, instead of getting Junkrat out, you could always join up with us.”

Roadhog looked back at Mercy, trying to see if he’d just heard her correctly. She simply stared straight back at him, her eyes serious with a hint of sincerity behind them. “We know how much you two are a target with just Junkrat’s treasure, not to mention your ridiculous bounty. Talon’s been trying to hunt you down, we could protect you.”

Roadhog was silent for a moment, simply staring at her. He watched as her gaze flicked across his goggles, clearly trying to search for some sort of answer or reaction. Then he snorted a little. Then he broke into full out laughter, pulling his head back. Even if he didn’t say a thing, he knew the doctor was smart enough to hear the scorn he’d put in his voice. 

It quickly died down though, and he sighed, still bemused. “Not a chance.”

Mercy gave a sigh, although it was curt, as if she was both disappointed and expectant. “That makes sense. After all, I can’t expect you to trust me that much, nevermind the rest of Overwatch.”

And suddenly, just like that, they were silent again, and for much longer. Mercy seemed to have had her fill of conversation for the day. It felt a little off for some reason, but then again Roadhog was used to things feeling “off,” so he quickly shoved aside the thought. 

It wasn’t a few minutes later until Mercy realized she’d forgotten something. “By the way, I finished the shelter. I’ve made it big enough for you to fit, keep you a bit more dry and protected from this weather,” she nodded over in its direction, her head still in her hands. She returned to staring ahead. 

Roadhog looked over at the shelter Mercy had made, the large, broken-off branches leaning over the side of the tree and some of the lower branches that could reach them. She was right: it’d been resized just enough to allow Roadhog to sit or lie down underneath it. 

But it wasn’t much bigger than that. 

That stupid doctor. Did she just plan to not be under any sort of cover in this weather? Just because she was more “used to the cold?”

He looked back at her, still with her hundred-yard-stare, and that itching feeling he’d pushed away just a little bit ago came back, stronger than before. Now that it was louder, he was able to realize what it was. 

The tone in her voice, something had irked him. The way she simply stopped insisting with him, disappointed, it wasn’t what he was used to expecting with her, and it all bothered him. For the first time, Roadhog felt as if he’d been left hanging in a conversation. He hated it. He wanted to get rid of it. 

But what could he do? Just join Overwatch? No. No way in hell. Like he told her, last time they worked with any sort of suit they ended up in a trap. 

_ I can’t expect you to trust me.  _ Out of that entire conversation, that phrase especially bothered him. Why? He was a deadly criminal, she was an unarmed doctor. And somehow, the two of them had gotten stuck in this godforsaken forest, filled with old bastion units, somehow still active after all of these years. 

In an environment like that, they needed some modicum of trust. 

That’s right, why didn’t they have that?

_ I wonder indeed. _

“They’re from a friend.”

Mercy’s head jerked up, staring up at Roadhog in surprise as he spoke. 

“His name’s...it’s Bruce. He’s an engineer, works in the wasteland. Makes ‘em for me, barely charges.”

Mercy simply continued staring up at him with wide eyes, a smile slowly starting to creep onto her face. 

“The canisters, I mean.”

“I know what you mean,” she grinned. 

Roadhog growled, making sure he looked intimidating. “You don’t look for him. Or tell anyone.”

Mercy furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, before relaxing and nodding. “Alright then. I promise.”

Roadhog nodded back, glad at their little agreement, before turning back to stare at the weather again. He heard a sigh come from Mercy, but it was far from the disappointment he’d heard from her just minutes before; no, this one was content. It was happy. 

“Thank you, Roadhog.”

“If I get one word from Bruce you won’t be thanking me.”

“Of course, why would I expect anything less?”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna be honest, was pretty unsure with this chapter, which is why it took so long for me to go look back at it and edit it. But now that I've completed, I feel pretty happy with it. 
> 
> Also I swear to god things are going to happen just hold on. 
> 
> Thanks to RabidSquid for providing a few ideas for this chapter!!

Hana was in a shitty mood. 

And she didn’t curse often, simply out of habit; she was often required to filter herself during some of her more mainstream appearances, and as such taught herself to keep a clean mouth, even when startled. It was only during her more grisly live streams, such as those of the battlefield, was her profanity allowed for the rating. 

But even still, any cursing on Hana’s part was always completely intentional and done with purpose. 

It contrasted a lot more with the junker accompanying her, who was spitting curses left and right. 

And by  _ accompany,  _ she meant desperately crawling underneath her mech to gain some semblance of shelter from the rain that had surprised them that morning. And boy, what a terrible way to start the day: trying to get some semblance of rest after watching a bastion burst into flames, when you’re suddenly startled awake by a dangerous criminal screaming bloody murder over a little weather. 

Hana supposed she should’ve expected an argument to break out eventually. And bonus points for it being over something petty and dumb, too. 

“Come onnnnn,” Junkrat whined, stretching his arm over to poke Symmetra in the shin. “Can’t you hurry up already?”

Symmetra glared down at him, her arms working on the umbrella in front of her. “Be patient,” her voice was calm and restrained, like a mother teaching her child manners while he was waiting for lunch. “I don’t make these often, so they take longer.”

Junkrat groaned, retracting his arm back to the underside of Hana’s mech. After a few brief and lovely seconds of silence, Junkrat reached out a hand to poke Symmetra again. Hana knew this, because he heard a noise of frustration come from her. “Are you done yet?”

“No, I’m not. I’ll let you know when I am.”

It shut him up for a few more seconds, before he asked the same question. “Is it done  _ now? _ ”

“Junkrat, this asking is just slowing me down.”

“...”

“...”

“How about now?” 

“ _ Jamison! _ ”

Junkrat growled. “Don’t call me that! It’s Junkrat!”

“Just,  _ please, _ ” Symmetra pinched the bridge of her nose. “Let me work in  _ silence. _ ”

Junkrat stayed quiet after that. Why though, Hana wasn’t sure. Maybe Symmetra’s tone of voice had finally gotten through to him.

“Are you done now?”

...Or not.

Hana glanced over to see a completed umbrella in Symmetra’s hands, with her eyes narrowed downward, towards where she knew Junkrat was. For a few seconds, Hana wondered what she was doing, taking so long to hand it over to Junkrat, when suddenly Symmetra gave a deep sigh, closed her eyes, and calmly handed it over to Amelie. 

_ Oh, that’s cold.  _

“Merci,” Amelie murmured, opening up the umbrella and holding it over Symmetra as she began working on a second one. 

“Hey! What was that for!”

Hana looked over, and before Symmetra could open her mouth and respond, she suddenly jolted to the side. Hana stepped aside to look down and see that Junkrat had lunged to her and grabbed onto her ankle, glaring up at her. Symmetra looked both frightened and disgusted at the contact, an expression that only seemed to infuriate Amelie. 

“I don’t know what the  _ fuck’s  _ wrong with all of you here, but I am  _ sick  _ of it!” Junkrat snarled, his hand barely moving even as Symmetra shook her leg. “I see the way you’re always glaring at me, and I ignored it. Fuck, I even went along with your ‘no  arm’ bullshit, but this is  _ it! _ ” 

He began getting back on his feet, letting go of Symmetra’s leg in order to grab at her bionic arm—along with the half completed umbrella—and nearly knock Symmetra over, considering he was a head taller than her. “Now, Give. Me.  _ That umbrella!”  _

Amelie jumped forward and kicked at Junkrat in the stomach in an attempt to make him back away from Symmetra. However, it was clear the kick wasn’t particularly hard, as it barely knocked the junker back, but it served to make his glare turn towards Amelie. 

“And  _ you!  _ First you shoot my leg, then you threaten Roadie, and  _ then  _ you throw me into that lake! You didn’t even know what was in it before you did it!”

He took a step towards Amelie, who didn’t budge from her place, simply narrowing her eyes at him. “If you want to kill me so bad, why even bring me along? To show off in front of your dumb girlfriend by kicking my ass?”

Amelie’s face morphed into a snarl at the comment, and Hana made sure to quietly raise her mech’s guns, ready to intervene in case things got worse. However, she didn’t step in immediately; the way Junkrat’s shoulders were hunched, the expression on his face, it seemed he’d been wanting to say all of this for a while. 

“The  _ reason  _ we brought you,” Amelie spat, almost yelling to be heard over the pouring rain around them. “Was to get your cooperation. But it seems you’re more trouble than you’re worth! Here we are, helping you find your fat friend-“

Amelie was suddenly cut off as Junkrat’s fist collided with her jaw, nearly knocking her to the ground. Hana took a step forward.

” _ The fuck did you just call him, you blue bitch?! _ ” He stood over her, all six feet of him, his hand raised and ready to hit again. She only glared up at him, rubbing at her cheek. 

Symmetra hurried over to Amelie’s side, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Hana took another step forward, and that time Junkrat heard it. He whipped around, seeing the raised cannons, and somehow got even angrier. “Of  _ course!  _ You’re all ready to turn on me at any second! You guys may not  _ look _ like suits, but you  _ sure as hell are ‘em! _ ”

He whipped his head back and forth, almost as if he was trying to glare at all of them at the same time. “I don’t understand a single one of you fuckers! First you tell me you want to help me find Roadie, but the moment we land here you all act like you fuckin’  _ forgot about him! _ ”

Hana opened her mouth to say something to him, but it seemed that Junkrat wasn’t finished quite yet. He gripped the sides of his head, looking just about ready to scream. “What the  _ hell _ are we doing out here if it’s not for Roadie?!”

Any words that Hana was going to come up with instantly died in her throat, and it seemed the same happened to the others as well. All that was left was Junkrat panting in the pouring rain, frantically looking at each of them for an answer. His eyes were wide, desperate, as if he genuinely didn’t know what the answer was. 

And he didn’t. 

He didn’t get a reply for a little while, but eventually Amelie was the first one to speak up. “We’re,” Junkrat whipped his head around to her. “...Looking for Angela, too.”

Hana couldn’t see Junkrat’s expression from where she was, but judging from the tilted head and the tone of his voice, she knew he was confused. “Who the hell’s Angela?”

Amelie’s eyes widened. ”You...forgot her?”

Junkrat growled. “All  _ I _ know is we got dumped in the middle of this dumb forest to find Roadie. When the hell was this ‘Angela’ in this equation?”

Junkrat’s memory, at that point, shouldn’t have surprised Hana, and neither should his forgetting of Mercy. They’d already seen up close how poor it was: he seemed to have forgotten half of the equipment he’d been holding, he didn’t completely remember the path the junkers had taken in Eichenwalde, and she remembered how the first day they had to keep repeating the rules of the search to him.

However, in all that time with him, she noticed a few constants. 

Explosives was one of them, of course. Despite the memory, he still seemed remarkably sharp with anything that blew up and made big billowy balls of fire, if his reprogramming of Symmetra’s arm didn’t already attest to that. 

The other one seemed to be Roadhog, apparently. 

Sure, Junkrat never seemed to be able to remember his real name, but in regards to the actual  _ person,  _ he seemed to remember quite a lot. In fact, thinking back, Junkrat liked to babble about random stories when he decided it had gotten too quiet, them usually being  _ incredibly  _ biased recounts of some of his more famous heists throughout the world, and each one was peppered with details like  _ you won’t believe the joke he told then, _ and such. 

And it wasn’t until now did Hana even realize it all. 

Roadhog was the only thing he even remembered of their mission. 

Hana wasn’t sure if the others realized the same thing, but there was a clear shift in demeanor with the both of them. Symmetra moved her hand off of Amelie, and slowly stood up. Junkrat stepped back a little, clearly expecting some sort of move towards him after letting out such a rant, but Symmetra ignored it to calmly walk over to the spot of mud where she’d dropped the hard light umbrella and pick it up. 

Junkrat leaned away in shock as Symmetra held the umbrella out in front of him. The two of them stood there for a few seconds, neither seemingly willing to move, before Symmetra gave a small and exasperated sigh. 

“You are... _ unpleasant  _ to work with,” she glanced to the side. “You’re rude, annoying, and completely disregard anything we say to you.”

Junkrat turned his head a little, narrowing his eyes at her. 

“ _ However,  _ I must say I’ve been no better.”

Hana’s eyebrows shot up her forehead, and both Junkrat and Amelie seemed equally surprised. Symmetra continued. “We asked you to come join us, and yet the moment you accepted we did nothing but harass you. Not only is this absolutely discourteous, but it’s also counterproductive to our mission; we need to work together to find  _ both  _ Roadhog and Angela, and yet we’ve caused nothing but fights.”

Symmetra sighed, shaking the umbrella in her hand a little. “So please, offer my apology for our behavior, and accept this stupid umbrella.”

Everyone stood silent, shocked at Symmetra’s little speech. Junkrat reached out a hesitant hand to grab the umbrella, before pulling back again. After another moment’s consideration, he stood up straight. “I didn’t understand half the words you just said, but apology mostly fuckin’ accepted!” He exclaimed, grabbing at the umbrella and quickly opening it above his head (somehow with one hand, Hana had no clue how). 

And at the moment, all the tension in the air seemed to melt away. Amelie’s shoulders slumped (Hana didn’t realize how much they’d tensed up) as she stood back up, and the cannons of Hana’s mech lowered as it was clear the storm had passed. 

Or at least, the metaphorical one. Certainly not the physical one pelting down on them at that moment. 

But even that didn’t seem as bad, now with Junkrat happily holding an umbrella over his head, and Amelie at Symmetra’s side as she constructed a new one. Hana let out a sigh of relief, glad that the situation had been cleared. Mostly. 

A small  _ tink  _ echoing off of the dome of her mech interrupted her thoughts. She looked up, her eyebrows furrowed, and saw another white speck hit the window of her mech. Junkrat seemed to notice a couple of them hitting his umbrella, and he looked up in confusion as well. 

The hail quickly accelerated from there. 

The large pebbles of ice quickly began beating down on the plastic of Symmetra’s hard light umbrella that it became clear a hole was going to tear in it soon, considering how it was already becoming misshapen. 

Amelie groaned. “We need to get to shelter quick-ow!” 

Her command was interrupted by some of the ice hitting her in the face, and Hana sighed, putting up her defense matrix, deleting any block of ice that tried to rain down on the others. After all of the practice working on bullets, deleting the hail was much more relaxing, and she held it over the group as they all moved over to find a thicker part of the forest where they could find proper shelter. 

The group stayed mostly quiet as they walked. Junkrat tossed aside the umbrella—now beaten and bumpy—in frustration, but Symmetra didn’t seem to be bothered by it. In fact, she simply kept her arms crossed in front of her, seemingly glancing over at the junker every now and then. 

_ What, does she want to say something to him? _

Hana turned back to the front.  _ Let’s hope she doesn’t take a while, then, like me.  _ She laughed a little to herself. 

Luckily, Symmetra was different, because soon after, Hana heard her speak up. 

“Um, excuse me Junkrat, but I have to ask a question.”

“Hm?”

“Usually, the removal of a prosthetic arm is slow, and if not painful. So how did you remove yours to blow up the bastion?”

“Oh, just tore it off.”

“Really? Did it not hurt?” 

“Oh please, it was nothing,” he waved a hand, “Back in Junkertown, we got caught in some  _ really  _ bad rain, able to burn your  _ skin  _ off…”

As Junkrat continued rambling on about his little experience in radioactive acidic rain, Hana took note that Junkrat was still dripping wet from standing out in the--normal--rain. Back when he swam out of the lake, he was desperately slapping at his arms in an attempt to get the water off of him, but now, he simply let it slip off. 

It was a surprisingly calm look for Junkrat. 

Hana hoped that it meant something good for him. 

 

—-

 

“Favorite color?”

“Pink.”

“Why do you like pachimaris so much?”

“Cute.”

“What’s your favorite flavor of tea?”

Roadhog turned to look at Mercy. “Are you done yet?”

“Right, right, sorry,” Mercy put up her hand, seemingly a little embarrassed with herself. 

Roadhog let out a sigh, leaning his head back against the tree. Ever since he’d finally admitted the source of his medicine, Mercy had finally stopped asking him about it. Which was a good thing of course, because if he started hearing questions like  _ where does Bruce live  _ and  _ can I get one of his canisters  _ he likely would have punched her. However, contrary to what he partially hoped, she didn’t become quieter now that her favorite topic was no longer on the table. Instead, she filled that newly created gap of conversation with random, miscellaneous questions, and Roadhog had no idea where she was trying to go with all of them. 

“Okay, one more question,”

Roadhog groaned. 

“There’s footage of you robbing an ice cream cart,”

“I wanted ice cream.”

“That’s not what I was going to ask. What’s your favorite flavor?”

Roadhog looked over at Mercy. She stared back, a confused at the look, and seemingly expectant of an answer. “What?”

”What do you  _ want _ ?”

Mercy shrugged her shoulders. “I just...want to know?”

He simply stared at her again. 

“Okay look, I really mean it. I’ve been legitimately curious about some of these things, especially the pachimaris,” she murmured the last part underneath her breath. “But before, I guess I never thought...you’d be fine with me asking.”

Roadhog turned to look up ahead at the weather trapping them under the tree, and gave a deep sigh to himself.  _ You have only yourself to blame for this. You wanted this.  _

Admitting that to himself almost stung more than what he said next.

“Fine. But I get to ask too.”

Mercy had a brief moment to look surprised as usual, but by this time it had shortened significantly and before Roadhog knew it it was already replaced by a bright smile. “Super! So, what’s the answer?”

“Strawberry. You?”

“Don’t eat ice cream often, but when I do, chocolate.”

Roadhog snorted. “Bullshit.”

Mercy looked at him incredulously. “What? You think I don’t like chocolate?”

“I’ve seen  _ mice  _ more relaxed than you. You don’t stress eat?”

“W-you’ve only known me for the past few days, stuck here in bastion-filled woods! You don’t know how much I’m relaxed otherwise.”

“How many supplies are in your armor.”

“Oh! Easy, I’ve got bandages, needles, thread, a water filter, some disinfectant, a few antibiotics, painkillers, extra ammunition…” Mercy continued counting off the items in her suit, before trailing off a little. She gave Roadhog a little glare, and he hoped she could see his grin underneath the mask. “Just because I’m well prepared for battle doesn’t mean I’m stressed.”

“Hm,” Roadhog chuckled a little. “Maybe I’m wrong. More ice cream would probably show.”

“And what does  _ that  _ mean?” Mercy accused, although her voice was very playful. 

“You’re a pencil,” he looked her up and down. “You got a tapeworm eating your calories for you?”

Mercy gave a surprise burst of laughter. “N-no,  _ god  _ no. It-it’s just a healthy diet, is all.”

She kept laughing, leaning forward a little. After it went on for a few more seconds, he started to feel a bit put off. After the laugh lasted even longer, curiosity grabbed at Roadhog. “What’s so funny?”

“Well, I suppose your guess with the tapeworm wasn’t too far off.”

Roadhog looked over at her in surprise.  _ She’s got a parasite? _

“I have nanomachines installed in my bloodstream,” Mercy explained, and Roadhog released a small sigh of relief, one that only he noticed. “Their main purpose is to speed the healing process for any wounds I get, and to stop the bleeding of the ones that can’t be fixed on their own. Remember those bruises I got from when we climbed that god awful cliff? They all healed later that day. It’s very useful. However, they have some other effects, such as an increase of my metabolism. So yes, I suppose I do have  _ something _ keeping me a bit thin.”

The two of them were quiet for a little bit. Mercy, because she was likely waiting for a response from Roadhog, and  _ he _ was quiet because he had no idea what to say to that. He mostly understood what she was trying to say, but it was still bizarre.  _ Who would purposefully put robots in their body if their life wasn’t at risk? _

_ And more importantly… _

“So you  _ do _ stress eat.”

“What the- _ what is with your focus! _ ”

Roadhog laughed as Mercy continued to rant to him. He looked out at the forest, and his laughter relaxed as he realized there was shift in the scene in front of him. The white pellets were thinning out, and the sound around them changed as small water droplets began hitting puddles, rather than chunks of ice. 

The hail was leaving, being replaced by more rain. 

Mercy must have noticed his stare and followed his gaze, because she gave a little hum. “Well, the hail’s stopping.”

He grunted in agreement. 

“We should probably decide what to do now, then.”

He coughed a little. 

“ _ I  _ say, we stay until this rain has thinned out.”

Roadhog turned to her and tilted his head. She looked back at him with the calm expression of a doctor, something she showed a surprisingly small amount in the forest. “Like I said, a weakened immune system will do nothing but harm us. We don’t want to end up exhausted when we run into a bastion because we’ve been wasting our energy on fighting the cold and sickness.”

Roadhog quietly reached over and picked off the halo from Mercy’s head. She looked a little annoyed, but she didn’t protest as he put it on his head and tapped its side. Yellow outlines lit up in his vision, and he looked around to see where the village was: still pretty far off, but it was certainly bigger than the last time he’d seen it. 

A part of him had suspected she was leading them the wrong way, and he felt a bit of satisfaction at the fact that it had been proven wrong. 

He quietly handed Mercy back the halo, and she continued with her little explanation. “We’ll likely make it to town in another day, we’ve got access to water, and with that out of the way shelter is more important than food,” she poked the side of her arm. “And in any case, even if starvation was a problem, it’d hit me far sooner than you.”

Roadhog looked down at Mercy, who simply stared back with a pleasant smile that he could tell was holding a bit of smugness behind it. He gave a deep, tired sigh. 

“Fine. You’re the doctor.”

Mercy’s shoulders sagged in relief, apparently having been anticipating some sort of argument. But as she opened her mouth to say something, Roadhog interrupted her. 

“But you’re not starving either.”

She jerked up to stare at him, her eyes wide, but it quickly relaxed into a small smile. “Oh, d-don’t worry, that wasn’t-I’m not expecting us to start starving too badly. I-I just-I suppose I got carried away a bit, got a little too medical there.”

_ She’s surprised.  _ Roadhog thought as she stumbled over her words. He gave a small chuckle at her stammering attempt to ground herself again. “Just making sure.”

Mercy laughed a little too, although it was small and almost wheezy. “God,” she sighed. “You need to stop catching me off guard like this, Roadhog.”

Roadhog hummed, pleased. He leaned back onto the tree, beginning to relax a little. If he was going to wait for this rain, he might as well get some rest. He closed his eyes, hoping the rain would be calming in some way. 

It wasn’t. It sounded like a stampede in his mind, all of it racing towards him at the same time. But nonetheless, Roadhog got some rest. He was used to falling asleep in tense situations. 

 

—-

 

Sombra ran a clawed hand through her hair, blowing out a sigh of frustration. She sat huddled underneath a tree to shelter her from the last half hour of hail, her purple screen close to her face as she furiously tapped on it. 

She’d hacked into the systems of the doctor’s equipment plenty of times before. Recently, it’d happened a lot when she was sent in to disrupt an Overwatch mission. As such, she was very familiar with the systems that held Mercy’s suit together. Finding it should have been pathetically easy. 

Yet, in a massive forest with barely any signals, no idea of where the doctor was located, and a slight malfunction in her display, Sombra was found getting surprisingly ticked off. 

Not to mention, she wouldn’t be able to find any signal from the doctor’s equipment unless it was  _ used.  _ And ever since that morning, she’d only used one part of her suit once, and that had been hours ago. 

Sombra rubbed a hand over her face, staring at the hail scattering across the ground in front of her; she’d been forced to wait for the better part of the day simply to see if she’d find a signal, and a part of her hoped that they hadn’t been moving while she was sitting underneath a tree. 

The hail slowly began fading bit by bit, fewer and fewer white dots crashing into the ground. Sombra simply stared at it, letting her mind fade, wondering how Moira and Gabriel were reacting to her absence. Probably anger, who knows. She doubted the two of them would stop due to weather like this, especially with O’Deorain; the elements didn’t seem to affect her at all. Gabriel probably grumbled before going in his smoky form and just letting the hail fall through him. 

If they managed to find Roadhog and Mercy before she could out of sheer luck, Sombra was probably going to scream. And then probably die or something, probably by Reaper. He wasn’t a fan of deserters, funny enough. 

An annoying beeping sound snapped Sombra’s eyes wide open (she didn’t even realized she’d closed them), and looked over at her purple screen. She quickly dragged it back, seeing a small yellow dot blinking on the display. She quickly stood back up, a grin beginning to split her face as excitement ran through her.  _ So that’s where you are! _

Sombra quickly stepped out from under the tree, the screen still in front of her. She waved her hand, putting up her cloak, and began running towards the location; even though she knew the rain hitting her made the invisibility pretty useless, she still felt a bit of comfort in it. 

Besides, the rain wasn’t gonna last forever. And once it was over, the element of surprise would be all hers. 

  
  
  



	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for 1000 hits! I never expected to have a fic of mine get this much ^w^

Reaper growled in frustration as he and Moira walked through the forest. He hated to admit that his back was a little hunched over in anger, all the while Moira was walking next to her with her perfect posture, as always. Reaper hater the lack of professionalism he was carrying, but at that moment he was angry, and there was no point in acting like he could have an ounce of pride in front of Moira, after so many years of working with her. 

“Where do you suppose she’s gone?” Moira’s clear voice cut through the cool atmosphere of the forest. She paused in her walking, looking over at something.

“To find them. On her own,” Reaper growled back, stopping with her. “Probably going to try that same stunt as she did on Volskaya.”

“Honestly, I don’t know what we expected from her. You think she’ll succeed?”

“Who knows. But either way, she was our guide—for some reason,” Reaper muttered that last part underneath his breath. 

“How often have you been to Eichenwalde?”

Reaper hummed. “A few times.”

“Do people live nearby?”

He gave a small pause, thinking to himself. He thought back to missions scouring the ruined castle, clearing out the area of any remaining omnics. The castle had been a graveyard, and Gabriel had been more than eager to clear out anything moving from the place. It was a rare occasion, as he’d worked alongside Jack for that mission. He remembered looking out onto the horizon, and at the sight of thatched roofs, and feeling even more motivated to clear the area of anything potentially dangerous for them.

“Yes. They do,” He looked over to see what Moira was doing, and saw her hands dancing around a nearby plant. He tilted his head to see exactly why, and felt contempt as he saw her slowly pulling out the life of the leaves in the plant, the liquid in the tubes bubbling. “Is now really the time for that?”

“Relax, Reyes. I’m just feeling a bit tired.”

“How long have you been doing that?”

“The past hour. What was your answer again?”

“There’s a town nearby.” 

”Excellent. We’ll try and make our way there, no doubt one of the groups will likely end up there eventually,” she stood up, brushing off a few twigs from her clothes. “Is that a good plan for you?”

“It’s fine.”

“Then let’s get moving, shall we?”

—-

 

By the time the rain had subsided enough for them to begin traveling again, a cough had already begun asserting itself in Roadhog’s lungs. 

Mercy gave him a sidelong glance at the first few, the pachimari wrapped in her arms, but seemed to ignore it. After about a dozen moments of him “clearing his throat” though, she let out an exasperated sigh. 

“Looks like that shelter didn’t do much in the long run, did it?”

Roadhog moved to shrug, but it was interrupted by another, albeit smaller cough. Mercy quirked an eyebrow at him. 

“Why not remove the mask? I doubt it’s pleasant to keep coughing into.”

Roadhog shook his head without a second thought. 

“What? Why not?”

He pointed at her. She leaned away from him, confused. “I thought we established that I’ve already seen your face.”

Roadhog shook his head, resigning to the need to speak. “Sick.”

Mercy’s eyebrows shot up, and she put a hand on her chest. “What, you’re worried about me?” She smiled, and gave a dry laugh. “Don’t worry about that, then. It seems I’m a bit sick too.”

Roadhog tilted his head in confusion. Since when had she gotten it? She hadn’t coughed at all every since the rain had started. 

“I have a few antibiotics stored in my armor,” Mercy explained, looking almost sheepish. “It was enough to help me fight it, but I didn’t think offering it to you would be rather helpful, considering your body mass.”

He stared at her for a second. “You’re very overprepared.”

Mercy gave a wave of her hand. “And for good reason. I’ve been in plenty of situations where I’m stranded with wounded soldiers, and don’t have access to my usual supplies. I need to make sure I’m at least a little prepared for as much as possible.” She shrugged. “Besides, hasn’t that already been proved to you? Look how much my equipment has helped the both of us.”

Roadhog hummed in agreement, although it was a bit reluctant. While it was fair that some parts of her over preparation had paid off for the two of them, Roadhog had to wonder: how often did the doctor get stuck with a criminal in the middle of the woods?

He wasn’t sure if he could form an answer for that. 

Roadhog’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he heard a quiet “oh” suddenly come from Mercy. He looked over to see that she had stopped, staring at something up ahead with furrowed eyebrows. He followed her gaze, and grunted as well at the sight. 

It was a four-legged omnic with aging orange paint on it like the rest of the bastions they’d seen, seated underneath a nearby tree. It had four dots on its face that Roadhog assumed would be lit up if it were activated, and what looked like guns on each side of its head. He guessed it had two arms like most omnics, but one of them had been crushed, flattened against the crater that was in its torso. It had an eerie, almost alien design, one Roadhog had never seen himself back in the days of the Omnic crisis. “What…”

“They’re called O-R14s,” Mercy’s voice spoke up, a part of her voice somber. “You’ve probably never seen one before, they were made specifically to fight the crusaders.”

She walked up to the corpse of the omnic, laying a hand on the undamaged arm. “They had blades that were able to pierce through the armor, and were strong enough to match their strength.” 

_ Made to counter the crusaders, huh?  _ “Doesn’t look like their plan worked.”

“Yes, not in the long run, I suppose,” Mercy sighed. “Still, there were far more...casualties as a result of them.” 

“You ever fought ‘em?”

“Only a few times. A lot of what I know is from Reinhardt’s stories. You know, they’re the reason he lost his eye…”

Mercy continued, beginning to tell stories about the crusaders, when Roadhog’s eye caught onto something. Drops of water that had remained on the tree dripped onto the cold, sad metal of the omnic. 

At least, they should’ve. 

Instead, they burst a few feet in the air above the omnic, almost as if something was shielding it. 

_ Or someone was sitting on it. _

“Move!” Roadhog yelled, immediately sending out his hook at the seemingly invisible figure. Mercy quickly jumped back in shock, managing to dodge out of the way in time. The person on the OR14 wasn’t quite as fast. He saw his hook scrape on something, and the air flickered purple to reveal a human figure jumping off the omnic. However, it was gone before even a second could pass. Luckily, it was enough for Mercy to notice. She quickly strapped the pachimari in her hands to her back and pulled out her staff, before realization spread across her face. 

“What the-?  _ Sombra?! _ ”

The purple flicker appeared again, but this time the camouflage faded away to reveal a woman dressed in bright neon, waving her fingers at the doctor. “Hola.”

“You know her?” Roadhog grunted, suddenly wondering (and maybe worrying) if she was part of Overwatch. 

“I wish I didn’t,” Mercy growled, her grip on her staff tightening and rage evident in her voice.  _ Alright, not a part of Overwatch then. Useful to know.  _

The woman--what did Mercy call her, Sombra?--giggled at the comment. “No need to be so hostile Ziegler, I’m just here to talk.”

“Oh really? About what?” Mercy snapped.

“Well, if you’d let me talk I’d tell you,” she rolled her eyes, and  _ wow  _ Roadhog was really beginning to dislike her. She pinched her fingers together into a square. “I wanted to show you something cool, Angie,”

And before Mercy could respond, a purple display appeared in front of her, revealing a video to the two of them. 

It was the ape that was currently running Overwatch, rubbing his face in frustration at something the young woman in front of him was saying. She was sporting orange leggings and an odd device on her chest that was giving off a blue glow. She looked familiar, but Roadhog couldn’t put his finger on it, or care anyways. Too many celebrities nowadays, he couldn’t bother to keep up with them. 

“You’re  _ sure  _ they’re the ones that took the jet?” The ape’s voice was exhausted. 

The woman sadly nodded. “I’m positive; and D.va’s mech was gone this morning. Junkrat was missing from his cell, too.”

There was a long pause between the two of them. The woman kept her gaze on the ground, as the ape was clearly trying to think of what to do. “Where do you suppose they’ve gone?” he asked. 

“Where do you  _ think _ ?”

Another pause. “What are we going to tell the UN?”

“I don’t know.”

Sombra closed the video with her fingers, grinning at the two of them smugly, before beginning to pull up news articles to show them. “In case you two aren’t in the loop yet, after your little tumble the UN decided Overwatch was being too active for its liking, and froze any and all Overwatch activities.  _ Including  _ your search party,” she pointed at Mercy, winking. “Now, apparently that was an issue for some of your uh,  _ friends _ , and instead decided to take Junkrat and fly here to search for you anyway. What do you think would happen if the UN, say, got video evidence that Overwatch was directly disobeying their orders like this, and aided in the escape of a worldwide criminal worth literal  _ millions _ ?”

Mercy stared at her, shocked, and honestly Roadhog felt a little similarly. Overwatch, working with Junkrat? And they were in this forest?

His thoughts shifted back to the explosions they’d heard the night before, and felt a part of himself go cold.  _ No, that couldn’t have been him. No way they would have let him use explosives.  _

Mercy’s cold, stable voice snapped him back to reality. “What do you  _ want _ ?”

Sombra raised her hands in defense. “Relax, Angie. I just want a little help from you. Your monkey’s a good talker, no doubt if this search party stays a secret he’ll be able to get on the UN’s good side. And after that, I’d love to get a little information from Overwatch, every now and then.”

“What, like your precious  _ Widowmaker _ ?” Mercy spat the word with so much venom that Roadhog was taken aback a little by it; he had never imagined he could see her so angry. 

“What? No, none of that! It’s  _ Moira _ who’s obsessed with that sniper. As for me, I’d like something different,” she tilted her head. “Like maybe a few blueprints every now and then, like your armor, or maybe even that little AI Winston’s got-”

“You’re crazy!”

“Am I?” She lifted a picture of the sniper. Her skin was normal, and she was leaning against a rail inside what Roadhog supposed was one of their bases, mid laugh. “Your precious Amelie and Satya will be arrested for this. You’d really be willing to put them through that just to protect a little information?”

Mercy clenched her fists, seemingly out of answers for it. Roadhog looked at Sombra, who didn’t seem to notice his gaze; her attention was solely on the doctor as she continued her awful display of manipulation. He thought to what Sombra was saying: if the UN got word that some illegal Overwatch agents were wandering out in the woods with the junkers, they’d dispatch dozens of soldiers to retrieve them, even if he and Junkrat weren’t there. They’d be swarming the area in just a day, cutting off all exits and keeping careful watch on anything entering or exiting. 

And if Roadhog were in Sombra’s position, the  _ last  _ thing he’d want would be to get  _ more  _ suits involved. 

Mercy seemed to have been taking too long with her answer, so Sombra began another round of prodding. “You know, I’m a busy woman, I haven’t got all day. So what’s your choice going to be? Are you seriously considering letting Overwatch fall all over again-”

“Bullshit.” 

The area was deathly silent as both Mercy and Sombra jerked to look at Roadhog, their eyes wide. Sombra’s expression quickly shifted to annoyed, though. Roadhog tightened his grip on his weapons. 

“What are you talking about?”

“We’re not falling for it.”

“What, you don’t believe the footage is real? Even if you weren’t wrong, I doubt the UN would feel the same-”

Sombra was cut off as Roadhog threw his hook at her again. She dodged to the side again, using the ruined OR14 as cover. 

“Not the footage. Your stupid bluff.”

Sombra’s eyes widened for a moment, before they relaxed into a more confident position. “So you’re really turning me down then?”

Roadhog glanced over to look at Mercy, who still seemed shocked from the exchange. She noticed his gaze though, and he saw something in her expression change. She gave a grim nod, turning towards Sombra. She lifted her staff, ready for a fight. 

Sombra simply sighed at the silent reply, leaning her elbow on the OR14. “Shame, it seems,” She placed her hand on the omnic in front of her, and patted it twice. Immediately, the lights on its face lit up, and the both of them watched as it slowly rose up, drawing its blade and getting in a battle stance. Roadhog perked his ears as he heard rustling nearby and looked around, only to feel his stomach sink as he saw several red lights emerging from behind trees to stare at them: bastion units, and plenty of them. 

“I guess I’ll just go back to the original plan then.”

 

\---

 

Now, Angela was a naturally curious woman. It’s what drove her to discover so much in the medical field, asking so many questions. 

However, despite this, she was  _ perfectly  _ fine with never finding the true answer to the omnic activity in Eichenwalde forest. 

Well, that was a lie. Honestly, if she hadn’t found out, she would’ve come back once Overwatch had found her again and tried to figure it out. 

_ Not  _ while she was still stuck in the middle of the woods. 

What seemed like a dozen red, glowing eyes stared at the two of them. Sombra leaned on the side of the OR14, casually pressing some buttons. She glanced over at them, and gave a  smirk. “Try beating these ones to death, doctor.”

And with that, she vanished, and she and Roadhog were left alone with a circle of angry omnics moving in on them. 

Angela quickly ducked behind a nearby tree as Roadhog sent out his hook to the nearest bastion, cutting into the metal in its midsection. He jerked it towards him, but instead of pulling out his gun as Angela expected, she watched as he just clenched his fist, pulled it back, and punched tha bastion square in the eye.

The brass knuckles punctured through the glass, and the omnic fell over under him, sparking. He whipped around to grab another one, only to be knocked back by a set of bullets from the other bastions. He gave a grunt of pain as small circles of red began blossoming across his back, and he quickly moved into cover behind some of the nearby trees. Almost immediately Angela lifted her staff and activated it, sending a bright yellow beam his way and slowly beginning to heal his wounds. He glanced over at her for a second, looked at the closing bullet holes, before nodding and jumping back into the open to grab another bastion.  

They quickly formed a little pattern: Roadhog would try and hook at a bastion, shoot it or beat it, depending on the condition it was in, before ducking back into cover to heal from the bullet wounds. Admittedly, it had its shortcomings, most notable in the copious amounts of broken wood and metal now around them, but Roadhog was thinning their numbers extremely well, especially with Angela helping him out. Not only that, but Angela had managed to minimize any serious injuries for herself by keeping her distance from the line of fire. 

She was so focused on staying out of the sight of the bastions she barely noticed anything else. 

Angela heard the sound of heavy, metal footsteps behind her, and she turned around to notice four glowing red lights staring down at her, its blade raised. 

The OR14 swung its arm down, and out of pure reaction Angela lifted her staff to block the attack; luckily the omnic had been out of commission for so long that its blade was no longer heated, but the metal was still strong, and the noise it made upon contact with the staff she’d put her heart and soul into made her cringe. She quickly threw its arm to the side, looking back to see where Roadhog was. The moment he was in her vision, the wings on her suit flared up, and she was launched towards him. 

“Be careful!” she yelled as she landed next to him. “The OR14’s trying to get behind us!”

“Got it.” he called back, filling his gun with scrap and firing at a bastion that was in sentry mode and walking towards them. It stumbled back at the contact of metal hitting the glass in its eye, before folding as Roadhog’s hook wrapped around it and brought it towards him. He fired another shot, and soon enough the bastion was just pieces at his feet. 

Angela switched her staff to its blue light, increasing Roadhog’s strength. He rolled his shoulders at the sudden energy boost, and dove back into the fight. 

One by one, the bastions became scrap metal beneath their feet, and Angela was beginning to keep her eye on the ground to make sure she didn’t trip on something. Every now and then she whipped her head around to see where the OR14 was, but surprisingly, it had suddenly decided to retreat. Perhaps it had seen her get near Roadhog and became cautious?

Were OR14s even able to make assessments like that? She wasn’t sure. 

As she continued thinking about where the omnic had gone, she didn’t even notice the sound of digital tappings nearby. Before she could even react, a final beep suddenly had her staff shut down, and she turned around to see Sombra grinning at her. 

“Roa-” Angela was cut off as Sombra’s foot collided into her stomach, knocking her back and onto the ground. She quickly got up though, glaring at the hacker. 

Roadhog hadn’t seemed to notice her absence just yet, as he moved forward to finish off the last of the bastions. 

That glance away to him was all the window that Sombra needed, and se moved in for another strike. Angela managed to react in time thought , using her staff to block the fist coming towards her. Sombra reached to her back with the other arm, and suddenly pulled out her pistol. Angela ducked her head as bullets rang out above her, before swooping underneath the outstretched arm and hitting it. The added weight of the gun set the arm off balance, and before she knew it Sombra was on Angela’s shoulder and was tossed away. She hit the ground hard, giving a frustrated grunt, and stared up at Angela, who spun the staff in her hand. 

“Nice try with the gun,” Angela spat. “But you seemed to have forgotten in all those illegally accessed records that I worked with a certain cyborg ninja for  _ years.  _ You think I can’t fight without my pistol?”

Sombra slowly began getting up, coughing a little. But then her face widened into a smile. “Sure the ninja taught you some moves, but did he train your attention?”

A loud, electronic roar sounded behind Angela, and she stiffened. She whipped around, raising her staff as the OR14’s sword swung down. It collided hard with the staff, and Angela looked in horror as it bent underneath the force. 

“Mercy!” She heard Roadhog call from behind her. She glanced away to see Roadhog staring at the scene in front of him, a few bullet holes in his arm, but no bastions in sight. 

As she looked, the OR14’s arm lurched her staff staff to the side, making it fly out of Angela’s hands and land a few feet away. But before Angela could even make a move to retrieve it, she felt cold metal puncture through her as the omnic stabbed into her side. She gave a small gasp as the chilled, numbing sensation in her waist only spread as the blade was pulled back out, warm blood dripping down her armor.

Her vision began to blur, and she desperately worked to keep herself from panicking.  _ Relax, the nanomachines can stop the bleeding,  _ she thought as her knees gave out from under her, and she hit the ground. 

The OR14 gave another roar, raising its blade to finish Angela off, when a familiar meathook suddenly appeared, wrapping itself around the OR14’s neck. Roadhog pulled, trying to move the omnic away from Angela, but she watched as it simply dug its feet into the ground, remaining still. 

_ Reinhardt told stories about how they could resist a crusader’s charge,  _ she thought, her thought processes beginning to get foggy.

But even as it was obvious that the OR14 wasn’t budging, Roadhog continued to pull anyway. In fact, the sight made him pull even harder, as he growled at the omnic. 

The sound of tearing metal suddenly rang in Angela’s ears, and she lifted her head to see the OR14’s head suddenly beginning to get pulled at an awkward angle towards Roadhog. A few more seconds of pulling, and the metal tore again as the head was pulled off of its shoulders, flying a few feet past Angela and hitting the ground with a pathetic  _ clunk.  _ She watched as the remaining body of the omnic fell over, a few pieces of metal rolling towards Angela as some of the OR14’s parts began to spill out a little. 

A conversation between Sombra and Roadhog sounded behind her, but her head was beginning to swim too much at that point to properly hear what was being said. All that was clearly heard was the signature sound of Sombra’s teleportation device, making Angela assume that the battle was at least over. She turned her head to look over at her staff a few feet away, bent into a sad angle. She doubted it’d properly work in such a state. 

_ But Roadhog’s still injured, dammit,  _ she cursed to herself.  _ I can recover just fine with my nanomachines, but he can’t! _

Acting quickly, she grabbed one of the metal pieces of the nearby OR14, and slammed it into her leg. She vaguely heard the heavy footsteps of Roadhog approach her, but she didn’t care. She hit at the armor again and again, barely fazed by the stings of pain it was causing (and how she knew she was causing a bruise). Finally, she’d hit it enough at its cleavage point, and a chunk of the armor on her shin slipped off, a tightly wound bundle of bandages tumbling out. She reached for it and lifted it upwards towards Roadhog, who was standing in front of her, his face unreadable as ever. 

“Your wounds,” Angela croaked, only now beginning to realize how difficult it was getting to speak. “Staff broke.”

Roadhog paused to look at her before nodding, grabbing the bundle of bandages. However, rather than apply them to himself, he suddenly bent down and began to apply them to Angela’s wound. 

“Wait, no,” she tried to protest, but she could barely speak, let alone increase the volume. She put a hand on his wrist, and he stopped for a moment to look at her. 

“The nanomachines,” she tried to explain, hoping he’d understand. “I’ll be fine.”

Roadhog didn’t give any sort of recognizable response; not even a nod, or a grunt, or anything. Instead, he just continued applying the bandages to her. 

“Stop…” Angela’s grip on his wrist tightened. “You need those for yourself…”

Her vision was fading, and the last thing she could remember clearly seeing was Roadhog turning to stare at her, and a hint of widened eyes behind his goggles. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can probably tell I have no idea how to write action scenes.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to work to release this chapter early, so I hope you enjoy!
> 
> ALSO, we're now officially at the 2/3 maybe 3/4 mark of this story! man, what a ride. that's uh, still not over

The first time Junkrat saw Roadhog without his mask (even though he promptly forgot about it) was a couple of months after they’d first started working together. They’d gotten cornered in a warehouse by a couple of the Queen’s lackies, and Junkrat needed Roadhog to give him cover while he made an explosive to help them escape. Roadhog had been positive that he’d kept an eye on everyone, and yet somehow one of them had managed to slip through. 

He still wasn’t completely sure how the bastard did it, but nonetheless, he’d managed to slip through and get the jump on the two of them, causing the bomb to set off early and badly injure Junkrat. Roadhog had been forced to carry him out of the warehouse amidst gunfire, and once they were a safe distance away Roadhog had removed his mask so that Junkrat could heal with one of his breathers. Junkrat had gained consciousness with just a few huffs, and had seen Roadhog’s face before he could put the mask back on. 

At the time, Roadhog had felt extremely upset; He assumed it was not only because his face had been seen (although that lessened once it became clear Junkrat forgot what he looked like), but also because he had had to waste a perfectly good canister of medicine to heal the idiot. 

Yet in retrospect, staring down at the growing pool of red growing underneath the doctor, he began to question if that was why he had been truly upset, because he was feeling a little similarly seeing the doctor injured, and there wasn’t a canister in sight to be angry about. 

He wasn’t even sure how he last track of her in the first place. All he knew was that she had been right behind him, warning him about the OR14, and then suddenly he turned around and she was a distance away, cornered by the omnic and Sombra. 

Killing the OR14 had been satisfying, watching its head fly through the air and land near his feet, almost in range for him to kick it. He heard a growl of frustration nearby, and looked over to see Sombra with her eyes wide at the destroyed omnics before her. She opened her mouth, likely to say something snarky and angry, but Roadhog was done hearing her voice, and immediately threw his hook at her. Unfortunately, she just vanished in a flash of violet light, and his hook pathetically hit the ground where she was once standing. But as disappointing as it was to not be able tear Sombra to shreds for the shit she’d just put them through, at least it meant that all the immediate dangers were gone. 

And that left only one big problem left. 

Roadhog quickly moved over to Mercy’s side, who at the moment was currently beating at the armor of her leg with a chunk of metal. He was about to ask what the hell she was trying to do when the armor suddenly popped open, a cluster of bandages falling out. 

_ Of fucking course,  _ he though, breathing out a sigh of relief and for once feeling genuinely grateful for her preparedness. 

That is, until the bundle of bandages was suddenly thrust into his face with shaking hands. He looked down at her, hoping she could see his confusion through his goggles. “Your wounds,” she croaked, and holy  _ shit  _ did she sound terrible. 

“My staff broke,” she continued, as if it would explain why she was handing  _ him  _ the bandages. He glanced over to the side to see Mercy’s staff a few feet away, bent at an odd angle.  _ Ohhh, so  _ that’s _ where her staff went.  _

_ So she wants me to heal myself while her staff is broken? _

He looked back at the doctor lying in front of him, her skin pale and her armor broken and stained red. 

_ Yeah no, bullshit.  _ He thought, nodding at her as he began brushing away some of the more loosely attached pieces of armor that had broken off from the stab, before beginning to bandage up the wound. It seemed she was conscious enough to realize what he was doing, because she protested surprisingly quickly, resting a hand on his wrist, which—as much as he hated it—made him pause. 

“The nanomachines,” she tried to explain, her voice clearly getting weaker by the second. “I’ll be fine.”

_ No, she’s not, she won’t be,  _ He thought, continuing to apply the bandages. Mercy tried resisting by tightening her grip on Roadhog’s wrist, but there was barely an increase in strength. “You need those for yourself…”

Her voice began drifting, and Roadhog looked up in alarm as he saw her eyes beginning to get cloudy, her head leaning back. He felt alarm course through him, and reactively he lashed out at the side of her face. Although he had tried to be gentle, panic had increased the speed, and he cringed to hear how loud the  _ smack  _ was and to see her cheek slightly pink from the impact. Her eyes fluttered back open with a small gasp, and her gaze focused in on him. “Stay awake,” he commanded, trying to keep his voice gruff as he aggressively tore at the bandage and applied the remaining strand. She obeyed, keeping her eyes open and focused in on him. 

Once he was done, he gently set her back down onto the ground, sitting next to her, and began applying the last of the bandages left to his more painful bullet wounds. He kept glancing over at the doctor every so often to make sure she was still awake, and every time he looked her head was turned to stare right at him. There wasn’t any emotion in her face—she was likely too exhausted for that—but her crystal blue eyes were clearly concentrated on  _ something _ . It was slightly unnerving, but it was better than looking back and seeing those eyes clouded over, as a ( _ very  _ small) part of him kept fearing every time he checked. 

After he was done with the rest of the bandages, he looked over to see how Mercy was doing with her own: the bleeding seemed to have slowed down surprisingly, likely because of the nano-whatsits she mentioned, but she still seemed pale and groggy. 

_ Do they have difficulty healing major wounds?  _ He wondered, before cursing to himself.  _ I need to see find a doctor, with proper supplies. She can’t last too long like this.  _

He looked at the trees around him, wondering which way the town had been before Sombra had ambushed them. But the fight had been too disorienting, and now he couldn’t remember which way they’d been heading, especially with all the nearby trees now destroyed. 

He turned back to stare at the halo on Mercy’s head, and sighed to himself. Ever so carefully, he reached out a hand and pinched the crown between his fingers, gently pulling it out of the tangles in Mercy’s hair. Her eyes followed his hand. 

He quickly put the halo on his own head, looking around to see where the town was: sure enough, he saw the outline of thatched roofs over his shoulder: it wasn’t as far off as he’d expected, and it seemed there was a chance that they could get there in a day. 

Pressing the halo down on his head to make sure it stayed there, he slowly stood up and moved to pick up Mercy. That was when a small, yellow outline appeared in the corner of his eyes, next to the bent piece of metal that was Mercy’s staff. He contemplated for a moment, before walking over and grabbing both of them, the staff being strapped to his belt and the other thing in his hand. He soon returned to Mercy, whose eyes were beginning to droop. To (more gently) wake her again, he placed the sad, stuffing-less pachimari on her chest, and began to slowly lift her up. He felt a bit of satisfaction as her eyes opened up again, but they looked over at him, and not the pachimari. 

Nodding, Roadhog slowly shifted her position so she was cradled in one arm and he could hold his gun in the other hand. He began to carefully walk towards the yellow outline of the town, and as he moved he didn’t miss the subtle movement Mercy made, who seemed to subconsciously shift to hold the pachimari closer to her chest.

 

\---

 

Sombra drummed her fingers over the bark of a nearby tree she was leaning on, her lips pursed in contemplation. She had to admit, it wasn’t  _ exactly _ how she’d planned the encounter to go, although to be fair she hadn’t known exactly how well Roadhog and Mercy were coordinated. 

Still, at least Mercy’s staff had been damaged, and the both of them had been injured, the doctor especially. But now, what to do? Sombra had hoped that the both of them would be incapacitated from the battle, making them easy to capture. But now she was just dealing with an  _ extremely  _ pissed off (and possibly protective?) junker, and the omnics near them were all more similar to scrap metal, with how much the nearby town had broken them down for safety. 

Sombra groaned to herself, staring at the blinking yellow dot on her screen as it slowly moved towards settlement.  _ What am I supposed to do now? _

The opportunistic part of her wanted to attack them again, now that the doctor was badly injured and couldn’t heal either of them, but without any omnics to back her up Sombra doubted she’d be able to face Roadhog head-on: he could easily take a couple clips of her gun before killing her with his dumb meathook. Not to mention the closer they got to town, the more likely a civilian would hear the gunshots. 

No. That window to attack had already passed when she’d set up the bastions around them, and she saw how well that plan went down. 

_ I can’t handle them alone,  _ a voice kept repeating in her head.  _ Not alone. _

_ Roadhog will be using the halo constantly: I know where he’s heading.  _

_ I can be a guide, because I can’t handle him alone.  _

Sombra gave a deep, exasperated sigh, leaning back on the tree and tilting her head to the sky. She  _ really  _ hated the idea of going back to Moira and Reaper, her tail between her legs as she faced the consequences for abandoning them. Still, maybe they wouldn’t be  _ as _ mad, considering how badly she’d injured the targets. But even if it would be  _ better,  _ wouldn’t mean that it’d be great. 

She rubbed her hands over her face, taking a deep breath. She’d wait a little longer to decide, but the near future didn’t look particularly bright. 

\---

 

It took several hours for Mercy to consciously realize that she’d been given the pachimari, specifically. While normally Roadhog would have considered it funny, it was also quite concerning, showing how much the blood loss had left her delirious. Luckily, the bleeding wasn’t getting any worse, but the injury wasn’t getting any better. Roadhog tried to avoid stressing out by telling himself that she didn’t notice the pachimari because she was barely conscious when he gave it to her, that she can’t feel it through her armor (broken and in pieces on her stomach), and how it had lost so much stuffing it was basically just a piece of fabric, and that she wouldn’t have felt any presence because of how flat it was, but he couldn’t help but silently think that  _ even with all of that, she’d notice it if she were fine.  _

They’d been moving along like usual when she wearily flicked her eyes downward, and finally noticed the discoloration on her chest. Roadhog hadn’t been looking at her at the time, as he was keeping his eyes ahead on the bookmark of the town ahead of him. 

“Roadhog,” Mercy murmured, and he looked down at her. “Did you give me this pachimari?”

It was then that Roadhog stressed out at her state, but on the outside he gave a simple reply as always. “Yes.”

“I’ll bleed on it, you know.”

“Just wash it.”

“Still want me to fix it?”

He nodded.

“Where’s the stuffing?”

“Lost it.”

“Shame. But we can get more,” She lifted the pachimari with two of her fingers. “But for now, I’ll just have to deal with this sad excuse for a blanket.”

Roadhog chuckled at the joke, and Mercy seemed to want to laugh along too, but they both knew that’d hurt, so she resigned to just giving a strained smile. But even as forced as it was, the moment still made Roadhog calm a little: she was clearly lucid enough to joke around, even if this lucidity seemed to come in waves, split up by long periods of silence. However, the moments were still a sign to him that she’d likely make it ‘till they got to the town and got a proper, non-injured doctor.

“Still,” Mercy’s hand dropped back down, and her smile faded. “I don’t understand how I’m still like this.”

Roadhog glanced down at her in confusion, but she didn't seem to be done talking. 

“My injuries don’t take this long to heal,” she looked down at the red on her armor sadly. “I don’t...understand…”

Mercy was getting tired again. She leaned back against his arm, her gaze trailed upwards as she began to silently stare at the light shining through the trees. And once again, Roadhog was plunged into a surprisingly uncomfortable silence. It was like when he’d been suddenly separated from Junkrat, and had to now deal with such a different speaker in the form of Mercy. And now, he was almost getting a sense of deja vu; He hated it. 

_ Focus.  _ He kept his gaze straight ahead.  _ Just keep moving, don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about the silence.  _

And he didn’t. He made sure to promptly ignore it, or try and focus on what  _ wasn’t  _ silent: the chirping of birds. The rustling of trees as the wind swept through them. The familiar sound of metal footsteps. 

_ Wait.  _

Roadhog froze, looking around, listening more closely. It seemed clear the footsteps were coming from the side, and he desperately looked to find the familiar red, glowing eye of the omnics they’d been meeting far too often recently. Not a single one appeared, but the footsteps kept getting louder. He carefully set Mercy down--who only seemed half aware of why he was doing so--and stepped away, making sure his gun was filled with enough scrap metal to kill the bastion as quickly as possible. 

He crept through the trees, following the tromping noises it kept making: it hadn’t seemed to detect him yet.  _ Good _ ; the less conflict and injuries he got with Mercy still wounded, the better. Although  _ how _ it hadn’t noticed them, he didn’t understand: Mercy was still clearly in sight of him, and the bastion sounded to only be a few feet away. 

He leaned around a tree, and up ahead he saw it, the back of the bastion, seemingly occupied by something on the ground. Not wanting to lose this precious moment of surprise he immediately he lashed out a hook, catching it on the bastion’s weight, before pulling it towards him for a final blow. It turned around to look at him and seemingly whined in fear as Roadhog put the barrel up against its head, but he didn’t shoot. 

At first he wasn’t immediately sure why. But as he took in the moment, his gun up against its head, it came to him: this bastion was... _ strange.  _ The lack of any orange paint, the flower clasped in its metal hand, the way it trembled at the sight of him.

And most importantly, the bright blue eye that was staring back at him. 

The two of them stood there for a moment, not moving, when Roadhog noticed a small yellow bird that seemed to be nervously flying around them. And at that moment, he heard another rustling in the bushes, and he jerked his head over to the source. Another omnic?

No. It was a voice, sounding through the trees. 

“Agh, where’d you run off to this time? I swear, if you’ve fallen in another creek, I’m going to-”

A small red figure pushed through the bushes, freezing as he saw the scene in front of him. He moved his head back and forth between the two of them with wide eyes, while Roadhog stared at how  _ small  _ he was, his large blond beard almost seemed to cover up half of his body. 

And yet, both the sight and the sound of his voice were strangely familiar, in the same way the voices on Sombra’s video feed had been familiar: he didn’t  _ know  _ them, but he knew  _ of  _ them, and he just couldn’t put his finger on where exactly. 

However, Mercy, who was still lying a few feet behind him, didn’t seem to be facing a similar problem, as she tiredly lifted a limp arm and waved at the man, greeting him with a weak voice. “Hello, Torbjorn!” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder how many people noticed the updated tags.
> 
> Anyways, here's some of hte many ways I've been misspelling bastion that I have to look out for when editing:  
> bastino  
> basiton  
> bastoin  
> bsatson


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! Special thanks to Moonfrost614 for leaving so many nice comments, it really helped me get through this chapter.

Satya tried to stop herself from sneezing as the group trudged through the forest. All those hours of walking and arguing in the rain had finally gotten to her, and it seemed she wasn’t the only one; Junkrat was humming some sort of song to himself, but it kept getting interrupted by coughing. And while all the alterations on Amelie had made her a bit more resistant to the old than the others, her sniffling was still evident. The only one who appeared to be fine out of the group was D.va, who had her mecha automatically regulating the temperature inside. In order to distract herself from the growing sickness she had, Satya began tinkering with some of her hard light blueprints. 

“We’re running low on supplies,” Amelie groaned, walking beside D.va. Satya glanced over to see the two of them trudging along, covered in mud and grass. Sata had some of the dirt on her too, as well as Junkrat, although he didn’t look that different. “We’re going to have to stop somewhere soon.”

“Isn’t there a town near the Eichenwalde ruins? It’s quite the place for tourists,” Satya pointed out, looking back ahead. 

“Well, there  _ is, _ ” Amelie waved a hand. “But we don’t have the coordinates for them. And in order to get them, we need to contact control to send them, which-“

“-We can’t do,” Satya finished, sighing. “Still, isn’t there a possible way to spot it?”

“I could fly really high with my mecha and look around,” D.va suggested. 

“You know, I might just consider that,” Amelie sighed, looking around at the forest surrounding them. 

“I shall try and find a better solution in the meantime,” Satya replied, although she let a bit of humor seep through her voice. “But can’t you connect with a map on your mecha,  D.va?”

“Sorry, I barely have a connection out here as is, we’d need to get closer to some civilization to do that.”

“Perfect,” Satya rubbed her face in frustration. “What do you think we should do, Amelie?”

She didn’t get a response, and Satya looked over to see that Amelie was no longer walking next to D.va. “Amelie?”

Tension coursed through her as she turned around. “Amelie?!”

The air that was caught in her lungs exhaled a little once she realized that Amelie was  _ not  _ in fact gone, but instead crouching a few feet away, having been left behind by the group. She still hadn’t responded to Satya’s calls though. “Amelie?” Satya asked, still feeling concern at the behavior. 

She still didn’t respond. Satya walked up to her, and as she got closer she realized that Amelie was trembling. She raised her eyebrows in surprise as she looked over Amelie’s shoulder to see what had gotten her so worked up. 

In the palm of her hand was a black, wilted flower. All of its leaves and petals looked like they’d all been pulled in one direction and frozen there. Amelie held it carefully and gently, and as her hand shifted Satya understood why, with the plant beginning to crumble at the slightest hint of movement. 

“Ame, what’s wrong-”

“The life was drained from it,” Amelie interrupted, not looking up at Satya. “Unnaturally.”

She looked up at Satya, who felt shock course through her at the fury in Amelie’s eyes. “There’s only one doctor that can do this.”

Satya had arrived to Overwatch after Amelie was treated by Angela, and had only heard stories from the other members as to what she was like before. But whenever she asked Angela or Amelie, she always got a dark look when bringing up who exactly was responsible for the creation of Widowmaker. 

“Moira was here?”

“They’ve figured out that we’re out here. They must have,” Amelie crushed the flower in her hand. “I shouldn’t be surprised, considering I knew Sombra myself.”

“Do you think they’re here for Angela too or is it just us?”

“Well, our group contains both Junkrat and I, but who knows, maybe there’s something they want out of Angela.” 

Amelie stood up. “Either way, we need to find Angela and get out of this forest  _ fast.  _ We have to prepare for some sort of fight, too.”

Satya reached out a hand to comfort Amelie, but before she could the sniper whipped around to face D.va and Junkrat, who had been standing a bit away, waiting for the two of them. “Junkrat, one of our agreements was that Satya, Hana and I would decide what was acceptable for this mission.”

“It was?”

“ _ Yes.  _ And right now, I’m changing the rules here. We said no explosives, but now I’m providing  _ one _ exception.”

“Oooh, what is it?”

“If you encounter a woman with orange hair, long nails, tubes across her back, and four eyebrows, you are allowed to blow her up as much as you want.”

“Alright! That’s what I’m-wait, four what?”

“Eyebrows. She has strange metal pieces on her forehead that look like eyebrows.”

“And I can kill the freak, nice!”

“That’s not--how I would phrase it, but you know what? Close enough.”

Amelie sighed, turning back to Satya as Junkrat began celebrating a the opportunity with a little dance. “You positive she’s here?”

“Not quite, but she from what I remember Moira had a tendency to be wherever she shouldn’t, so the chance is higher than you think.”

“How do you expect Junkrat to defend himself from her?”

Amelie chewed on the inside of her cheek, glancing down at Satya’s shining prosthetic. “Do you have any blueprints for bombs?”

“No, they’re too erratic,” Satya rubbed her chin. “However you have a good idea there…”

Satya turned to walk towards D.va and Junkrat, who seemed ready to begin moving again. D.va looked a little puzzled at the whole situation , but wasn’t asking any questions at the moment. Satya walked up to Junkrat, who seemed a little surprised at her approach, and stopped his little victory dance to look at her. 

Satya stood in front of the junker for a moment, contemplating and wondering if she was really about to do this, before sighing and lifting her prosthetic arm. A small, faint hologram of one of her turrets appeared above it. 

“Do you think you’d be able to turn something like this into a bomb? With only one arm?”

“Hell yeah! What can it do?”

“It sticks to mostly flat surfaces and fires lasers at any marked hostiles within its range.”

Junkrat rubbed his hands together and cackled. “Oh, this’ll be fun.”

—-

 

When Torbjörn woke up that morning, he hadn’t expected much. He hadn’t expected to discover strange behavior in the bastion he was supposed to be hunting, and to  _ defend  _ it no less from the people that hired him. He hadn’t expected to be using his capturing device on those men instead of the bastion, running off with it to who knows where. 

And something he  _ certainly  _ hadn’t expected was that  _ after  _ all of that ridiculousness, he’d suddenly find himself in some sort of  _ hostage situation. _

Roadhog--as in, _ the incredibly dangerous criminal Roadhog _ \--has still holding onto Bastion, his gun pointed at the omnic, but his gaze was focused in on Torbjörn. Bastion was still quivering in his grip, its pet bird flying around and twittering nervously. 

And then, somehow, when the situation couldn’t get weird enough, he heard a tired, weak voice behind Roadhog. 

“Hello, Torbjörn!”

Both Roadhog and Torbjörn froze, the former turning and the latter leaning to see the source of the voice. Torbjörn felt his heart drop into his stomach as he saw Angela lying in the grass a few feet behind the junker, skin pale and her armor covered in bloody bandages. Her hand was still set up, limply waving at all of them. “What are you doing here?” She asked, sounding almost out of breath. 

Torbjörn looked over at the junker again: bandages and bullet holes covered his body, along with plenty of dirt. The bright yellow halo atop his head would have looked strange and funny if Torbjörn wasn’t painfully aware of how it belonged to Angela. There were several things strapped to Roadhog’s back and waist, but what caught Torbjörn’s attention the most was Angela’s staff, bent out of shape, and the metal meathook on his side, with a hidden but recognizable stain of blood. 

Red, hot fury boiled through Torbjörn. He reached behind his back, ready to pull out his weapon. “What do you want with her?!”

Roadhog didn’t respond, simply staring at him with those expressionless goggles. He glanced back down at Bastion, which gave a few beeps of fright. “This your omnic?”

“I’m asking the questions here! What are you doing with Mercy!” His grip tightened around the gun at his back waist, about to pull it out. 

“Getting a doctor.”

Torbjörn stopped for a moment, confused. “What? You expect Mercy to heal you in that state?”

“No,” Roadhog growled, his grip on Bastion’s head tightening. “Doctor for  _ her,  _ dipshit.”

“What? Why?”

He heard a dry chuckle behind, and Torbjörn leaned around Roadhog to see Angela’s chest rising and falling a little. “He can’t even apply bandages that well, Torbjörn.”

Torbjörn’s eyes widened, and he looked back at at Roadhog. “Wait...you didn’t injure her?”

Roadhog simply growled down at him. “No,” Angela piped up from behind him. 

“What hurt her?”

Roadhog turned to look back at Bastion in his grip. “Omnics,” he snarled. Bastion trembled even more, trying hard not to make eye contact. 

Torbjörn raised his arms. “Hold on a second, relax! Just, just put the bot down, he didn’t do anything!”

Roadhog looked back and forth between Torbjörn and Angela, before grunting and tossing Bastion towards the former. The omnic stumbled a little, but managed to get on his feet and move behind Torbjörn. “We need a doctor,” Roadhog repeated, his voice almost sounding impatient. 

Torbjörn hesitated: there was a town nearby, but he couldn’t just direct this criminal towards innocent people. Still, it was clear that Angela was badly injured, so what was he supposed to do? 

He apparently took too long to answer Roadhog’s request, as the junker gave a gravelly sigh, before turning back to Angela. He still looked over his shoulder to make sure Bastion wasn’t making any moves, though. 

Torbjörn made sure not to make any either, out of fear of startling the junker while he was so close to Angela. He seemed extremely on edge, and if those injuries on Angela truly weren’t his doing, then it made sense. 

But Roadhog was pretty insane, and Angela had lost a lot of blood, so it was hard to trust what either of them were saying. 

Roadhog crouched next to Angela, and the two seemed to be murmuring with each other. Torbjörn looked at the two of them, and their mannerisms as they spoke, since he couldn’t hear what either of them were saying: Roadhog was visibly tense, the way his back was hunched and his fingers dug into the grass below him. It made sense, considering Roadhog’s history and Bastion’s presence: the man had fought against omnics before, and lost his home to an omnium. 

Angela’s reaction, however, didn’t make as much sense. When she looked up at the junker, her posture was strangely relaxed, and most importantly she was  _ smiling _ . While he supposed she could be delirious from her untreated injury, there was still no reason for her to be so friendly with the junker, especially if he was responsible for her wound in the first place. 

_ Stockholm syndrome? No, that’s ridiculous... _ Torbjörn brushed off the thought as soon as it came up. He’d already heard many rants from both Angela and other medics at the sensationalism behind such a term. Not to mention, he didn’t even know about any possible signs of it. 

Still, he filed it away in the back of his memory, just in case it became relevant again. 

Torbjörn’s train of speculation abruptly ended when he noticed that Roadhog and Angela had seemed to come to some sort of agreement, if the nodding of Roadhog’s head was any indication. He wasn’t given much time to think on what those two could possible agree on, before he suddenly found panic jolt through him as Roadhog roughly grabbed onto Angela’s armoured leg, crushing and pulling on it. 

Without even thinking, he took a step forward. “Stop! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Roadhog ignored him, continuing to twist at Angela’s leg, and she looked as eerily relaxed as ever. Was it possible he’d drugged her with something? 

Torbjörn began running towards the two of them, pulling his gun out. “Let her go already!”

Roadhog gave one final pull on her leg, and Torbjörn froze as he heard a  _ crack  _ resound through the forest. Yet it wasn’t a cracking like he’d expected, like the breaking of the bone. No, it was the breaking of metal, mixed with a similar noise you’d hear from popping off the lid of something. It was only then did Roadhog turn around to look at Torbjörn, and he swore that he could see smugness in the eyes behind that mask. 

Torbjörn leaned around to see Angela’s leg, afraid of what he’d see, only to begin gaping as he saw that Roadhog had simply removed some of the armour on Angela’s leg to reveal a roll of medical bandages. Roadhog grunted, shifting to the side to shove Torbjörn out of the way and begin peeling off the dirty bandages on Angela’s stomach. Torbjörn, against his better judgement, complied and stepped back, completely shocked. 

Did Angela tell Roadhog that was where her bandages were? He glanced at her again. Was that why she was missing the armour on her other leg?

Torbjörn watched as Roadhog reapplied the clean bandages onto Angela. Had he applied the first batch?

Torbjörn moved back to Bastion’s side as he began thinking again. It seemed that Angela was giving Roadhog some instructions on applying the bandages, judging by the way she was pointing her finger, but over time it seemed that she got too tired and simply leaned back and let the junker work.  

Torbjörn continued to stare at the scene in front of him. Rubbing his temples in contemplation. 

_ Alright, so it’s possible that maybe neither of them are as insane as I thought,  _ he thought to himself, feeling both a little confused as well as frustrated. 

_ If they’re both telling the truth, then that means there are omnics roaming around in this forest.  _

And they definitely seemed more hostile than the Bastion unit he was with. He  _ had  _ to go tell them, the lives of the people at the town were at risk. But if he brought Roadhog, wouldn’t he risk their lives too?

Torbjörn sighed:  _ With several people, I’m sure we could restrain him if the need arises.  _ He glanced at the two of them again.  _ Although for some reason, he seems more focused on Angela than anything else.  _

He looked back and forth between the two of them, and sighed. “Alright, you two.”

Roadhog turned to look at Torbjörn. Angela didn’t respond. “I can help make sure Mercy gets to a good doctor for her wounds, but I have a few conditions.”

Surprisingly, Roadhog nodded without hesitation. Torbjörn had to take a second to remember what he was planning to say. “First,” he raised a finger. “Let me speak with the town and ask them to heal her before they see her. Second, I’m going to need you to tell me more about these omnics.”

Roadhog nodded again, gently picking Angela up in one arm, and walking towards them. Eventually, all eight feet of the junker stood over Torbjörn, leaving him feeling somewhat intimidated. 

“Lead the way,” Roadhog grunted. 

  
  
  
  
  
  



	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay on this chapter! This was actually completed a little less than a week ago, but I hadn't been able to publish it on AO3. Not to mention, I had a bit of a writer's block with this and the last chapter, so this one's unfortunately shorter than usual! However, good news, I'm back in the swing, and we shouldn't be expecting a break like this again!

It had been another couple of hours before Junkrat had finally stopped hunching over Satya’s turret (much to her relief, it was hard staring at such poor posture). They had all been resting for a few minutes, when suddenly Junkrat jumped up, screaming “I got it!” and startling everyone. 

Satya whirled around to give Junkrat yet another glare, before her eyes suddenly widened at the device resting in his palm. “Is...that my turret?”

“Yep!” Junkrat replied happily, shoving the device in Satya’s face, who hesitantly accepted it. A part of her didn’t want to believe him: the turret was almost unrecognizable, with parts twisted and rearranged so that they’d stick out in the most aesthetically unpleasant manner possible, and she wondered how it wasn’t falling apart in her hands, as she could feel the parts inside it jostling whenever she moved it a little.   

“How...how is this staying together?” She asked, her eyes still fixated on the horribly ugly piece of machinery in front of her. 

“Tied a few wires together to keep the plates from falling off,” Junkrat animated, excited. “Can’t shoot that laser anymore, or stick to stuff, but what does it matter in the face of  _ explosions!” _

Satya held the turret in her prosthetic arm, doing a quick scan of its insides, saving it, and comparing it to the previous blueprints. It was astonishing how badly mutilated it was on the inside, but as she kept observing each part, what amazed her more was how surprisingly  _ functional  _ it was. True, there were a few questionable decisions and leaps of logic that Satya couldn’t immediately understand, but everything else seemed perfectly fit to create the biggest disaster within its inner workings, making the greatest explosion. Some of the solutions to achieve that goal even Satya admitted she wouldn’t have immediately thought of. 

“You want to see it in action?” Junkrat piped up. 

Satya looked at him with wide eyes for a moment, noticing the similarly worried looks from D.va and Amelie behind him, but before Satya could reply Junkrat had already grabbed the turret out of her hands and scurried a little distance away to place it on the ground, next to a   tree. He ran back to them, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder. “Now throw something at it!”

Satya glanced back at the others, and after a moment’s contemplation, slowly reached down to grab a nearby stone as the others moved a little further away. Pulling her arm back and focusing her eyes on the turret, Satya threw the little pebble as hard as she could. She watched as it flew towards the turret, a blue light coming from it and locking onto the rock (although it didn’t seem to do anything), before the rock suddenly hit the device with a small  _ tap.  _

In that instant, the machine burst open, releasing a deafening plume of blue flames, and Satya almost felt herself get knocked back by the wave of heat rushing towards her. The tree that turret had been next to was split in half, sending splinters everywhere (although none of them hit the group thanks to D.va’s matrix) and leaving its jagged, still-burning stump behind. Satya heard Junkrat’s whoops of excitement behind her through the whole thing. 

D.va’s mech calmly walked forward to the spots of fire still on the ground, its large feet putting out each spot of flame as Junkrat continued cheering behind them. Satya and Amelie both looked back at the junker, the former with shock and the latter with anger. Junkrat didn’t seem to notice the looks, or at least didn’t care, as he seemed just as excited as before. “Well?” he grinned. “What d’you think?”

“The explosion was...large,” Satya responded, interrupting Amelie, who had her mouth open and ready to break into a lecture. 

“And  _ blue _ !” Junkrat jumped, seemingly not noticing Amelie’s ire. “I didn’t even expect that one!”

“Neither did I…” Satya murmured. She held up her arm again, pulling up a 3D blueprint of Junkrat’s altered design. “And you say you deactivated both its lazer and affixing functions?”

Junkrat shrugged. “Had to, otherwise the explosion was puny!”

“I understand that,” Satya opened up the 3D model and pointe to some of the internal workings. She bit her lower lip for a moment, really wondering if she was about to say this, but continued. “But what if we reactivate it? An explosion certainly doesn’t feel small if it’s stuck to you.” Amelie whirled around and stared at Satya with wide eyes. 

Junkrat’s eyes widened. “Oooh, that’s not a bad idea!”

“Are you seriously encouraging him?!” Amelie grabbed at her hair, staring at Satya as if she was crazy. “Look at how much damage he just made with all of this!” She gestured to the last of the orange flames D.va was currently stamping out. 

“As long as we don’t let him detonate them anymore, there’s no harm in letting him keep himself occupied,” Satya murmured, making sure only Amelie could hear. “Besides, some of these modifications are truly  _ fascinating,  _ even if they’re quite crude.”

“Are you seriously  _ bonding _ with him over technology here?”

Satya didn’t reply, turning back to look at Junkrat as she heard an exasperated sigh come from Amelie. “So what do you say we try improving this?”

Junkrat grinned. “You’ll have to hold the tech again if you want to keep working with my genius. Unless, perhaps, you’re willing to make me another arm again?”

Satya hummed in amusement. “Not a chance. You’re the one who blew up your last one, after all.”

“Aw, come on!” Junkrat whined. “It was to destroy a bot chasing us! What the hell were  _ you  _ guys planning to do to destroy it?!”

“Nothing,” Satya replied, her eyes fixed on the model in front of her. “In fact, that’s why I wanted to make these weapons with you; there still seem to be some active omnics located in this forest, and it’d be best if we had weapons to break through their metal armor quickly.”

Junkrat’s smile returned. “So we’re making explosives  _ and  _ destroying bots?! Alright!”

_ With any luck,  _ Satya thought as Junkrat pointing at the parts of her hologram model.  _ This will just be a fun side project for the both of us.  _

 

\---

 

Angela’s memory kept fading in and out, making the specific timeline of events hard to recollect, especially considering how some of her absurd dreams mixed in with the memories. The most vivid moments she could remember were when Roadhog first bandaged her up, and when she heard Torbjörn’s voice for the first time. She couldn’t comprehend why he was there or if she was even still dreaming or not, but in both cases she decided it was best to greet him at least. Considering Roadhog’s usual company, he likely wouldn’t mind her waving at nothing (if she really was just hallucinating).

Everything faded a little more after that, but shortly afterwards she swore she could hear Torbjörn again, this time shouting. Was he shouting about her? He sounded accusing, though. That was when Angela remembered her travel partner, and it clicked together. 

_ Don’t be afraid of him, Torbjörn,  _ she thought worriedly.  _ He’s not dangerous, I bet he’s just scared, scared of those bastion noises nearby. Why can’t you hear them, Torbjörn? Are you too busy yelling at Roadhog? He won’t hurt me, and hopefully not you, or at least directly, believe it or not. He’s a terrible medic, though. He can’t even apply bandages that well, Torbjörn.  _

Angela laughed to herself, despite how much it hurt her. But she couldn’t help herself, the situation was all just so  _ funny.  _ How many days ago had it been, when he was about to kill her at the bottom of a ditch? Angela knew that he likely would have done it, but then something stopped him. She still couldn’t figure out what it was, and at this point she wasn’t sure if she could find a proper answer. Now, just a few days later, she wanted to talk down a former teammate, assure him that Roadhog wasn’t dangerous, even though she knew that wasn’t technically true. 

When the hell did this begin happening? Was it Sombra’s ambush? The rain? Seeing his face? 

Or was it back when they’d first shook hands, agreeing to help each other get out of this damned forest?

Either way, it was absurd, and Angela couldn’t help but begin laughing. Doing that for too long hurt though, so in the end she kept her laughter in her mind, and just grinned as she gave instructions to Roadhog. She could clearly see all of the bloody, unbandaged bullet wounds he still had on him, and Angela pointed him towards her other leg so he could use the bandages in them and finally cover up all those wounds with the hope that they hadn’t already gotten infected (although they probably did).

However, instructing Roadhog left her exhausted, and she didn’t have the energy to show the disappointment she felt when he just took off her old bandages and replaced them with new ones. 

She began drifting again as she felt Roadhog lift her off of the ground (when had she been set down? She couldn’t remember). Before the memory ended, she remembered twitching her fingers, and realizing with a strange sinking feeling that the soft texture of the pachimari wasn’t underneath her hands. She didn’t have the strength to move her tongue and tell Roadhog that she lost it, only able to feel a bit of regret right before it all went dark. 

The next time she was up, Angela could barely open her eyes, making the world around her a hazy watercolor mix of colors and movement. Sounds came to her, but her mind seemed to only register (or at least remember) part of it. She could hear the voices of Roadhog and Torbjörn again, and from what she could tell of the tone and volume, they sounded angry with each other. Were they arguing? Over what? Was Torbjörn still scared of Roadhog?

Speaking of fear, Angela swore that she had heard the noises of a bastion interjecting in their argument. What could a bastion possibly be doing there, besides getting destroyed? Neither of them reacted that much, so Angela assumed that it was just her imagination and paranoia getting the better of her. It happened sometimes, especially with such blood loss. 

Angela woke up the next time (she’d fallen asleep?) when she could hear yelling again, and she was being jolted around. She didn’t open her eyes this time; it was too exhausting, and she was able to get plenty of information just listening. The voices sounded different, nothing like Roadhog or Torbjörn. A woman? Had they finally gotten to the town? Or had Sombra appeared again?

Angela didn’t have the time to ponder on either possibility as she felt herself jerk downwards, like she was being suddenly dropped. Was Roadhog being attacked?! She had a moment of tension to brace herself for a painful impact on the hard ground, but in a split second that fear was replaced by relief as she felt something else catch her almost immediately after she’d been dropped. It felt different, more like several pairs of arms instead of the one, large arm that Roadhog had. She heard frantic commands above her as she tried to take a deep breath, preparing herself to get better as she drifted away again. 

Angela couldn’t remember hearing anymore noises after that, as the next moment she finally regained consciousness was almost completely silent. But as she slowly opened her eyes to the surprisingly bright light around her, she realized how much less effort each twitch, each movement, each different facial expression took. That sagging exhausting that’d been hanging off of her was finally dissipating, and she couldn’t be more relieved. 

She was in a nice little room with a little green color scheme: from the fabric on the curtains to the nearby furniture to the rugs on the floor, they were all a nice little forest green. It was charming. 

Her eyes quickly focused in on the one other person in the room, his red outfit contrasting greatly against the green chair he was sitting on. He’d been reading something, but the moment he realized that Angela was staring at him, quickly bookmarked his page and set it aside.

“Ah, Angela!” Torbjörn smiled. “So good to finally see you with us again!”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, writing delirious Angela was a lot of fun, even though it's probably not medically accurate /at all/


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wrote this chapter like in a day, and at that point I realized the original size was waaaayyy too big. So it's been split in two (or maybe three, I haven't fully written out the next part yet) pieces. Even then, this chapter's still bigger than average. Hope you enjoy!

Roadhog had become increasingly uncooperative upon their arrival in town. Torbjörn wasn’t sure if it was because he was itching to cause some chaos, if it was because of the bastion’s presence, or because he’d been separated from Angela, although he doubted the last one. Not even considering thow absurd it was, it was even less likely considering how willing he’d been to drop Angela in the hands of other doctors. 

In any case, Roadhog was in a clearly worse mood than when Torbjörn had found him and Angela in the forest, still refusing to fully explain how he and Angela had even ended up in the forest together. Sure, he’d been cooperative to tell Torbjörn all about the rampant omnics in the forest (which he’d told the town about the moment he arrived, making them a bit more willing to let him back again after what he’d done), but it was clear before Torbjörn had ever met him that Roadhog was not a very talkative person, and a  _ very  _ intimidating one. Anytime he was approached by someone--even when they weren’t there for questions--he’d give them a glare and a low growl, his massive size more than making up for his lack of weapons. 

The intimidation didn’t work that well on Torbjörn, but it was more than enough for the rest of the townspeople, who had given him a room of his own. He accepted it quietly, spending most of the time in the room doing who knows what. 

The only times he’d gone somewhere else in the past twelve hours were for food and for Angela. 

Torbjörn crossed his arms, glaring at the junker seated in front of the door to Angela’s room, where she was currently asleep. Roadhog calmly stared back at him, clearly not phased by Torbjörn’s ire. “Move aside,” he tried to command. 

Roadhog didn’t respond. Apparently from the doctors he’d been sitting there the past half hour, and as such the hallway of the medical center was mostly uninhabited. Luckily, there weren’t any other patients in that corner of the building, so the doctors weren’t worried about leaving the junker be. 

“Just give this up, Roadhog,” Torbjörn tried to reason. “Angela still hasn’t woken up, and I want to be there when she does. Or are you going to finally explain to me what in the hell’s been going on?”

Roadhog tilted his head, although Torbjörn wasn’t sure if it was because he was thinking or because he was being smug. Torbjörn was beginning to wonder if he’d need to climb into Angela’s room through the window.

“Fine,” Roadhog’s gruff voice suddenly cut through Torbjörn’s plans on how to break through a window with minimum damage. Roadhog stood up for a moment, moved a couple of steps, and sat back down next to the doorway. His gaze was fixed on Torbjörn, the gaze clearly intending to give another message, but he didn’t verbally articulate it. 

Torbjörn was unable to relax until he’d finally entered the room and shut the door behind him, giving a deep sigh and letting his shoulders slump. He looked up at Angela, propped up against her bed, still unconscious. He took a quick glance at her injuries; a few hours ago, the doctors had reported her condition suddenly improving at an extremely high rate. It seemed Angela had put something in her bloodstream to heal herself, but none of the officers there could get an exact answer on what it was. Eventually, they’d all opted to simply wait for Angela to wake up and tell them, since her recovery was a given conclusion. 

Sighing a little, Torbjörn grabbed one of the nearby books on the shelf in the room, propping himself up on one of the chairs and beginning to read, the rest of the world fading away to the edges of his vision. 

He’d gotten through several chapters (and an equal number of hours) when he’d noticed something a bit off out of the corner of his eye. 

Something blue. 

Torbjörn glanced up, his eyes widening to see Angela sitting up in her bed, staring right at him. He immediately gave a smile, closing his book. “Ah, Angela! So good to finally see you with us again!”

Angela didn’t respond, turning her head around at the room with a hundred-yard stare. However, as she kept looking around, the distance of her stare got shorter and shorter, until it was finally settled and focused on Torbjörn once more. The two of them were quiet for a moment as Angela looked down at her stomach, gently rubbing a hand on the barely stained bandages wrapped around her. “We...made it?”

“That you did. And you healed unbelievably quickly too! Had some things running through your veins that helped seal the internal damage,” Torbjörn kept his smile on, suddenly feeling like he was about to walk into a minefield. How long had Angela been stuck in those woods? What had she missed? Was she still in shock?

Angela furrowed her eyebrows. “My nanomachines?” she murmured. “They’re working again?”

_ Again?  _ “Well, that actually brings something up...I don’t know if you remember, but we found Roadhog carrying you with that wound. He said it was inflicted by an OR14, but what confuses  _ me _ more is how you two even ended up in the first place.”

Angela tilted her head, looking down at her hands in her lap. “Perhaps you could get me some context here?” He tried prodding a little. 

Angela nodded. “Sure, sure, I’ll tell you. Don’t, don’t worry, I’m just trying to collect my thoughts here, Torbjörn.”

She spent a little bit of time taking deep breaths, before looking back up at Torbjörn, her eyes much more focused. 

“I suppose I should start at the beginning, back when Winston first gathered us together for the mission.” 

 

\---

 

It was clear that Angela was trying to keep her explanation mostly brief: she’d skim over a few days, summarizing them by explaining their progress in travelling. But she was also skipping more than just boring days of walking, Torbjörn knew. Even with her story, there still seemed to be some jumps in the development of the partnership between Angela and Roadhog. Some things happened that built the trust between the two of them, and Angela wasn’t telling Torbjörn about them, which simply made his imagination run rampant (even though he tried hard not to let it). A small part of him wondered if they’d gotten... _ physically  _ close in that forest, but he shoved that thought away as quickly as it came, mainly out of discomfort than sheer absurdity. 

Still, even with the gaps in her story, it still painted a clear enough picture, and Torbjörn felt mostly satisfied. There were some parts of her recounting that were alarming, though: particularly their encounter with Sombra and the omnics. It was safe to assume that she was responsible for the omnic encounters beforehand, and considering that she’d failed in capturing either Roadhog or Angela she was likely reactivating even more as they spoke. 

“I remember hearing both your voices, as well as a bastion’s, although I wasn’t sure if that was real or just me hallucinating. After that I woke up here,” she looked around the room. “Where are we? And where’s Roadhog?”

“We’re in this town’s hospital. Roadhog should be outside the door, he’s been keeping guard at times when you were recovering.”

Torbjörn scratched at his beard as Angela finished up her story. “So, just to clarify, this ‘Sombra,’ she’s part of Talon?”

Angela nodded. “Like I said, Talon’s been targeting the two junkers for a while now. In all honesty, we should’ve expected them to come after us. I guess I underestimated Sombra’s access to Overwatch’s files.”

Torbjörn heard her murmur to herself about how they’d need to fix that once she got back, but just the mere mention of the organization sent a strange feeling through Torbjörn; a mix of nostalgia, regret, hope, and fear. The same mix of emotions he felt when he first received the recall, and promptly ignored it. What was he expected to do then? He couldn’t be sure this Overwatch would do any better than the last, and considering their latest scandal a part of him couldn't help but feel disappointed. 

Torbjörn looked back at Angela, who was staring out the window. How much did she know of what was going on with Overwatch? Sure, she’d gotten a bit of information from Sombra, but plenty had happened after the video feeds she’d been shown. At some point, Angela would need an explanation of the details, but now it wasn’t the time; she’d just woken up after recovering from a serious abdominal injury, stressing her out would only make things worse. 

“Torbjörn,” he jerked up at the sound of Angela’s voice. He looked up to see her still staring out the window, but her eyes were deep in thought and calculated, her fingers thrumming impatiently on her leg. “Are the communications working here?”

Torbjörn glanced to the side. Yet another thing he hadn’t wanted to tell Angela out of fear of stressing her out. “No, many of them began malfunctioning a couple days ago. Now that you mention this Sombra figure, it’s probably her doing it.”

“Makes sense,” Angela groaned a little as she moved her legs so they were dangling off of the bed. “But I need to contact Overwatch, and fast. I’m sure there was something she missed that I could possibly use.” And with that, she hopped out of the bed, her hand held tightly against the bandages.

“What the-what are you doing!” Torbjörn jumped out of the chair to object, but Angela was surprisingly fast, and by the time he’d taken a step forward she was already swinging the door open and leaving. Torbjörn quickly followed behind, still trying to coax her back into bed. As the two of them left the room, Torbjörn made a mental note at how Roadhog was in fact,  _ not  _ stationed outside the room’s door anymore. He briefly wondered when the junker had left before he continued catching up with Angela. 

“I need a radio!” Angela yelled, striding to the front lobby of the building and startling all of the poor staff. “Does anyone have a radio?”

“Angela, calm down!” Torbjörn called up to her as he caught up to her. “The radios aren’t working either! You think Talon would forget about them?”

“Of course not,” Angela didn’t look back at Torbjörn, still walking forward with purpose. “But I wonder how thorough she can be with them, being less high-tech. Where’s my armor and equipment?”

“Uh,” Torbjörn looked back down the hallway. “We put them in a room of your own-”

“Get the halo for me, please,” she looked down at Torbjörn’s surprised expression. “I’m thinking we could connect the two of them, send out a distress signal. Do you think you can do that?”

Torbjörn had a moment to think, before scoffing. “Who do you think I am, Angela? Although, I’m not too knowledgeable in how you built your armor…”

“No worries,” Angela waved her hand. “I’ll be there the whole time, making sure you don’t mutilate my tech. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get a radio.”

Torbjörn nodded, turning around and running back down the hallway. It didn’t take him long to get to Angela’s room and find all of her equipment, including the sad and broken staff. He quickly grabbed the halo off of the bedside table, running back to where he had last heard Angela yelling. 

By the time he got there, Angela was sitting on a table with a radio in front of her, encircled by several concerned doctors who kept politely asking her to return to her bed. Needless to say, Angela was ignoring them. As Torbjörn walked up to her and placed the halo on the table, Angela grimaced. “You’re right, Torbjörn. Sombra’s messed this up pretty bad.”

Without even looking at him, she reached over to the halo, fiddling with it for a moment before a hatch popped open on it. She moved out of the seat, gesturing for Torbjörn. “My halo’s connected with Overwatch’s comms. They haven’t been working ever since we got stranded, but I think connecting it with the radio might work.”

Torbjörn tilted his head. “I’ll see what I can do.”

He hunched over the table, the world disappearing around him. In the background, he vaguely noted how Angela was being reigned in again by the doctors, beginning to be treated next to Torbjörn after it was clear that she wasn’t leaving his side. And thank god she didn’t, every now and then she’d interject to point at a part of her halo to explain its purpose or warn him about damaging it. 

“You know, after all this, I’m thinking of improving this dumb armor you’ve got,” Torbjörn grumbled; navigating through Angela’s halo was like performing a surgery. 

“Please, and have to deal with it malfunctioning at the worst possible times? No thank you.”

“Hey!” Torbjörn objected as Angela laughed. “That was only a few times!”

Angela’s laughter eventually died down, and she gave a little sigh. “Do you miss those times, Torbjörn?”

“What times?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. Back in Overwatch, when we were all still together.”

“Of course I do. Who would I be if I didn’t?”

“Then why don’t you come back to it?” she leaned over, entering Torbjörn’s peripheral vision. 

Torbjörn grunted. “It’ll just end up the same like last time, but even faster. It’s already happening.”

Angela was quiet for another moment, leaving Torbjörn’s line of sight again. “Sombra told me some agents went out on their own, but that’s all I know that’s happening.”

Torbjörn stopped working, his hands clenched into fists as he prepared for Angela’s questions. He knew it was going to happen, but he was hoping it wouldn’t be happening so soon. 

“Look, Angela, there’s more than that. The UN found out, and from their perspective, several Overwatch agents just assisted in the escape of a world renowned and highly dangerous criminal. While they’ll acknowledge that Overwatch can’t be completely blamed for their actions, they’re all still being punished,  _ especially  _ \if either of those junkers end up free once all of this is over.”

He turned back to see the wide eyes of Angela staring back at him, and he sighed. “And this happened because you invited that criminal into your numbers. You said it yourself, Angela. Overwatch was shut down for a reason.”

Angela’s eyebrows furrowed, and she prepared to say something to him, but Torbjörn didn’t let her. He stepped off of the chair, gesturing to the radio. “I think it’s connected, although only to Overwatch’s communications.”

“What!” Angela yelled, jumping onto the chair. 

“Calm down!” Torbjörn put his hands up. “The connection’s not perfect, it was all I could to even get past Sombra’s sabotage. However, you can still use the radio to send a morse code message to Overwatch.”

“It’s perfect Torbjörn, thank you.” Angela responded with a determined expression, turning the knobs of the radio and beginning to tap out a message. Torbjörn listened closely to see if he could understand the message: prefacing it, she spelt out a series of random letters, being what Torbjörn could only assume was the verification code. After that, it was a standard S.O.S. message. 

Angela spent a lot of time hunched over that table, repeating the same message over and over again, hoping that they’d manage to notice and receive it. Torbjörn could distinctly remember leaving to go eat, talking with some of the people there about the new arrivals, and coming back to see Angela still at it. She looked tired, but determined as she stared at the radio, and as she began talking.

“Widowmaker was a former agent of Talon, but before that she was Amelie Lacroix. The poor woman was brainwashed and experimented on to be a perfect sleeper agent, and I faced against her expertise firsthand. 

“I wouldn’t have been able to reverse all of the alterations Talon had made to her body on my own. No one was willing to try and invest in that kind of money, or take in a criminal like her. Overwatch was my only option; they’d all known her, and they all wanted the same thing I did.”

She looked at Torbjörn, her eyes determined. “We got Amelie back, Torbjörn, and ever since she’s been the most hardworking, protective, and loyal agent we could ever ask for.”

She turned her head away from Torbjörn, looking out the window. 

“Overwatch was shut down for a reason,” she tilted her head, her gaze off in the distance. “But it’s come back for one, too.”

Torbjörn decided not to argue with that. 


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's so weird to think that I've written over 50k words of this fic and I'm not even done yet. I never expected to get this far, nor for it to be this popular, so thank yall
> 
> In the meantime, we've finally gotten some Roadhog+Mercy interactions again! God I didn't realize how much I missed writing these two.

Angela was tired. And hungry. She hadn’t realized it when she first woke up, but this was the first time in a week since she’d had access to any proper food _._ And as much as she felt like devouring the entire cafeteria’s supply of food, she had to remind herself as she walked down the hall that she’d have to eat slow, or else risk throwing it all up again .

Opening the doors to the mess hall, she found a part of herself being surprised at how...quiet it was. And while a part of her could chalk it up to the lack of people, the ones she did see were barely moving or speaking, their gazes mostly focused on a corner in the room. When she followed them and looked, everything became clear to her: Sitting on the floor with his back against the two walls, a relatively small tray in his hand, was Roadhog. His mask was pulled up every so slightly as he pinched a tiny fork in his hands and shoveled food into his mouth.

 _Of course,_ Angela sighed to herself, quickly making her way to the cafeteria and getting her own tray of food. She made sure to avoid any foods that were particularly hard to digest--some soup and apple sauce was fine--before taking the tray and walking over to Roadhog’s corner of the room. She tried her best to ignore a few of the gasps she could hear as she passed by several tables and settled on the floor next to Roadhog. She knew they all probably thought she was insane, but after the insane week she’d been having, she couldn’t care less.

But what _did_ bother her was Roadhog’s reaction. As she walked towards him, she saw the signature tilt of his head, and if she looked closely enough she could see his eyes widen behind the goggles as she sat next to him. It almost seemed as if he was shocked she’d approach him. What, did he think she’d leave him the moment she had other options? She supposed back when they first met that’d be a reasonable assumption, but now at this point it seemed ridiculous. After all, besides  Torbjörn, Roadhog was the only person that Angela even _knew_ in this town.

She paused for a moment, realizing what she’d just thought, before deciding to shrug it off. It was just a weird thought for a weird day.

She carefully watched all the wide-eyed stares she was receiving as she took a careful sip of her bowl of soup. “These people not treating you well, I assume?”

Roadhog grunted in agreement, although it sounded a little impatient. It made sense, he never seemed to be able to tolerate smalltalk in any form.

“How long was I out?” she took another sip of soup.

“Over a day.”

“Damn,” Angela laughed to herself. “You move fast. Here I thought we wouldn’t arrive in town in less than two days.”

“Your weird nano-whatsits helped. Could move faster.”

The smile on Angela’s face faded away at the mention of her nanomachines. She thought back to those bare moments of consciousness, of being carried by Roadhog. In any other situation, she wouldn’t have been in such a bad state, but…

Her memory quickly flickered back to the fight with Sombra and the omnics, how the hacker had pulled her away from Roadhog and disabled her armor.

“Actually, I wanted to speak with you about those nanomachines, Roadhog.”

He tilted his head towards her, showing that he was listening.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but something was...wrong with them, back when I got that injury. They weren’t working. Or at least, weren’t working as well.”

She took another sip of her soup, pausing her story. Roadhog patiently waited for her. “You see, during that battle with the omnics, Sombra had managed to hack into my tech, disabling the armour and staff. Now, looking back on that fight with her, I suspect that she had actually hacked some of the nanomachines in my bloodstream as well, deactivating a large portion of them. They weren’t built to resist attacks like that, so it might explain why they took so long to reactivate.

“So it seems that I was wrong, back then. When I got injured, I thought the nanomachines would just stop the bleeding for me, and that the bandages would be wasted if you used them on me. But now, in retrospect, it’s clear I would have bled out had you not bandaged me up, and my injury would have been much worse if you hadn’t replaced them, too.

“So, what I’m trying to say,” Angela leaned back, looking at the goggles of Roadhog’s mask. “Is thank you. Thank you for taking care of me back there; you saved my life.”

Roadhog grunted, turning away from her gaze and off into the distance. “You did it first,” he grumbled.

Angela raised her eyebrows in surprise. He was right; back in that ditch, she _had_ healed his wounds. Had the entire previous day been to repay that?

“So, I guess I don’t owe you anything after all, then,” she remarked jokingly.

“Dunno, favor would be nice,” he responded, his voice a little lighter.

“It would, as long as it’s in _reasonable boundaries,_ ” she emphasized the last part, making Roadhog laugh a little.

“Well then, hope this isn’t too much,” he remarked, pulling something out of his pocket and holding it in front of Angela. It only took a moment for her to recognize the happy cat face sewn into the fabric and burst out laughing.

“You promised,” he insisted, chuckling a little.

“You bastard,” Angela wheezed, grabbing the plush. “And here I thought I’d lost it.”

“Saw you drop it. Picked it up.”

“Of course.” she sighed. “And while I may not have _promise_ promised, I’ll fix it. Happy?”

Roadhog snickered. “Worth saving your life.”

“Hmph, well I’d say I’m still on the fence about it.”

 

\---

 

An hour or two after lunch, Angela decided to spend her time back at checking the radio signal. Roadhog decided to go off somewhere else, and Angela didn’t want to follow him; she had her own things to do. She looked down at her halo, opened up and gutted, and she thought back to her horribly bent staff just in her other room. She made a note to herself to fix it as soon as possible, considering they weren’t sure when Talon would show.

 _But,_ she thought, staring down at the pachimari in her hands _. I’ll just do an easier task for now. It’s best I don’t spend hours hunching over some technology so soon after my injuries, even with my nanomachines healing me._

She had already spent a good hour scrubbing out the pine sap and needles from the fabric, and the cute smile on the plush’s face looked brighter than ever as it swung in her right hand. In the other, she held a bag of extra stuffing she’d managed to get from the staff, all sealed up tight in a plastic bag. Both were swinging by her side as she strode down the hallway, and it didn’t take her long to find the room number she was told belonged to her. Quietly pushing open the door and seeing the room was empty, she strode in, sitting at the small desk provided and began working again. She was pushing some thread through a needle when she suddenly heard shifting and a quiet voice behind her.

“Um, Doctor Ziegler?”

Angela whipped around to see a young woman leaning in the doorway, holding her arm and looking at the floor nervously. Angela recognized her; she’d been in the cafeteria and had seen Angela speak with Roadhog. “Can I help you?”

“Well, my name’s Elicia. I’m just a janitor here, but I wanted to ask you some questions.”

Angela turned her chair and tilted her head, smiling. “Sure, anything you want.”

“Are, are you sure?”

“What, are you asking a lot of questions here?”

“M-maybe…”

Angela waved a hand. “Well if that’s the case, why don’t you come here and help me with this? I’m very good at multitasking.”

Elicia furrowed her eyebrows in confusion a little at the sight of the plush, but after a moment’s hesitation, she moved over and sat down next to Angela. She opened up the bag of stuffing and began handing clumps of it to Angela as the doctor began to work.

“So, what did you want to ask ?”

Elicia bit her lip, looking away. “Well, I wanted to know...why you’re not scared of him.”

Angela blinked. “Of who?” she asked, although she was already guessing who it was.

“Of Roadhog, the criminal. You act like he’s not dangerous. How, how can you do that?” This time, Elicia dared to look Angela in the eyes as she asked.

Angela furrowed her eyebrows, thinking on the question; It was a good one. It was clear that she wasn’t as intimidated by the junker anymore, but at what point had that finally happened? She thought back to the way she stammered back in that ditch as she begged for her life, how the two of them argued as they climbed the cliff, and the bruises his grip had left on her. But then, she thought as she looked down at the plush in her hands, she remembered all those conversations she had with him, how a surprising amount of them ended in laughter between the two of them. She remembered getting stabbed in the OR14, but instead of being scared that Roadhog would finish her off or leave her behind, she worried that his own wounds would get infected because he was taking care of her.

She’d been pushing aside the thoughts mostly, but it was at that moment that it hit Angela that she’d become something like friends with Roadhog in that forest.

“I...I’m not sure, Elicia,” She kept her eyes on the pachimari, only getting glances of the girl from her hand that would enter Angela’s vision and pass over some stuffing. “I suppose, stranded in a forest for a week, there’s little else to do but talk. And the more you talk, the more you understand, and it’s harder to be scared of something you understand, you know?”

She looked up at Elicia to garner the janitor’s reaction. She’d paused in helping to give a small frown, her stare going off into space. “I...I guess, but just because you _talk_ or agree to not kill each other doesn’t mean that you’re, you’re _pals_ or whatever it is between you two.”

“No, I suppose not.” Was all Angela answered, and Elicia decided to drop it, leaving the two of them in silence once again. It was clear she still had things to say though, so Angela simply waited patiently for Elicia to speak up again.

“You know, you scared us real badly a couple hours back.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, that Roadhog had been nothing but awful when you guys arrived, growling at anyone coming near and sometimes _jumping_ at us, just to scare us. When we all saw how _close_ you were getting to him, we were convinced he’d, he’d _strangle_ you or something, I dunno,” Elicia continued to emphasize her anxiety with her hand movements, although she kept consistently passing Angela chunks of stuffing.

Angela found it difficult to find the right words to respond to that. She made a mental note to speak to Roadhog about his behavior, though. “I’m sorry I scared you all like that before, and I’m also sorry for Roadhog’s behavior, I hadn’t realized he’d been acting like that while I was recovering.”

“You say that like you have some sort of control over him,” Elicia laughed, her hand on her forehead.

“I wouldn’t say that, but I suppose I’d have a better chance of convincing him to do something.”

“If you do, then is it possible you can get him to calm down?”

“I only promise to try,” Angela said, her tone a little lighter.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it,” Elicia murmured, leaning into her hand. “We all do.”

The two of them were silent for another moment, as the both of them focused their gazes on Angela’s sewing. Elicia spoke up again. “Do you think you could…”

Angela looked over at her, an eyebrow raised for Elicia to finish her sentence. She averted her eyes from the gaze. “I don’t know...protect us? From him? We, we never know what could set him off, put him on a rampage, you know” she stammered.

Angela’s eyes widened a little at the comment, but as she stared at the shy and nervous expression of the janitor in front of her, she suddenly realized at the strange position she’d found herself in; She’d managed to figure out how to get along with Roadhog, but that didn’t necessarily mean he’d be passive towards anyone else, meaning she was the only person that could speak with him about anything. She looked at Elicia, and saw the dozens of frightened townspeople, forced to take care of the both of them, and realized the responsibility she had in front of her.

Elicia stared at her, anxious for an answer, and Angela replied with a smile as comforting as she could manage. “Of course.”

 

\---

 

Winston had been working for the majority of the day, and to make matters worse he was refusing to sleep. Again. Athena had been making sure to remind him to stay on a consistent sleep schedule, but he seemed adamant about exhausting himself as much as possible, especially ever since the mission at Eichenwalde.

“Winston,” she spoke up again, ignoring the noticeable sigh she heard from him. “It is almost 0400 in the morning, I suggest you provide your mind and body some time to rest, a healthy body-”

“I _know,_ Athena,” Winston interrupted, rubbing his temples. “Just...let me finish this one last thing, and then I’ll go to bed.”

Athena was tempted to argue with that, to bring up all the other times he would say “one more,” but she could see the distress he was in that would only be worsened with an argument, so she opted to stay quiet.

It was at that moment that she received a notification of a signal being sent out from Eichenwalde forest. Immediately checking it out, she saw that the form of the signal was a bit basic, but that didn’t matter considering its content.

“Winston, there’s a distress signal with Overwatch’s identification tag being sent from Eichenwalde forest.”

“What?!” Winston jolted out of his chair. “Who’s it from? The party? Mercy?”

“I will play it for you, it’s in morse code,” she responded, her calm voice contrasting against Winston’s frantic demands. “Would you like me to provide a translation?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Winston said. They both knew he could understand the code well enough, but she was guessing it’d be easier to remove the extra step. Complying, she put up the message on Winston’s screen.

 

CODE NEPTUNE

 

Athena: Code accepted.

 

REQUESTING EXTRACTION

 

IN TOWN BY EICHENWALDE FOREST

 

COORDINATES PROVIDED

 

FROM ZIEGLER AND ROADHOG

 

The two of them were quiet as Winston stared at the screen repeating the message over and over, a set of coordinates spelled out after each one. Athena was tempted to prompt him for a response, but he beat her to it.

“R...Roadhog? What’s she mean?”

“If I had to guess, I would say that Doctor Ziegler and Roadhog have been cooperating due to them both having been stranded in the forest for an extended period of time.”

“But if they’ve both arrived in town, surely Roadhog would be making a break for it now?”

“I can not be sure of the exact circumstances based on just the message, but it would be safe to assume that we are short on time.”

Winston rubbed his chin. “But how can we send someone to extract them? And in such short time too?”

“Might I suggest Winston, we use what’s already at our disposal?”

Winston furrowed his eyebrows, still thinking, before he realized what Athena was implying, judging by the widening of his eyes. He closed them and sighed. “Is there a way we can contact the rogue agents?”

“Not easily. They cut off all communications to avoid being tracked.”

“You said not _easily_. You suggesting there’s a way?”

“It may be possible to send a message through Agent Song’s mech, considering it is government issued and likely has an emergency contact line.”

Winston stood up. “Then we need to figure out a way to it as soon as possible. I’m guessing it has some sort of access code?”

“Of course. I will work on figuring it out. How about, in the meantime, you get some rest?”

Winston let out a huff of frustration, before sighing and moving over to the door to go to his sleeping quarters. But right before he was out the door, Athena spoke up again. “Shall I inform the rest of the agents about this development in the meantime?”

Winston nodded. “Of course, and make sure not to leave anything out, including Roadhog.”

“Wouldn’t that cause unnecessary panic and possible leaks of misinformation to the UN?”

“Yeah, well, when we restarted Overwatch, we promised that we would do better than last time,” Winston shrugged, the exhaustion seemingly finally catching up on him. “We need to be careful about what secrets we decide to keep.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter might take a bit longer, as well as the one after that, sorry


	18. Chapter 18

Roadhog fucking  _ hated  _ this town; the people were idiots, the doctors were assholes, and  _ nobody _ could make eye contact with him without giving a small shriek and running away (including the Bastion unit, although that was more of a blessing (Also, how do bastions even  _ shriek _ ?)). 

And to top it all off, he was unbelievably _bored._ While he was usually able to entertain himself without speaking with others, unfortunately there wasn’t anything else for him to do instead. While most of the time, especially back in the Wasteland, he would have used this free time to keep watch, sleep, or tinker with his stuff, none of those options were really available to him: There was no point in keeping watch, considering they were in a civilian area (aside from that damned Bastion the dwarf had insisted on bringing along), he’d already taken a massive nap and felt paradoxically exhausted from it (as well as gotten an annoying headache), and Roadhog’s tools and weapons were nowhere in sight (Thanks, Torbjörn). 

He growled to himself a little at that last thought. Really, how in the hell had that stupid dwarf convinced him to give them up?

 

\---

 

It’d been a few hours before their arrival to the town that the two of them had gotten into their little argument. 

“We’re almost to the town,” Torbjörn had started, and Roadhog turned to look at him. The dwarf was staring straight ahead, clearly avoiding eye contact with the junker. 

“And?” Roadhog asked, feeling impatient. 

“I’d doubt they’d let a group like ours in,” Torbjörn looked up to glare at Roadhog. “Especially you.”

The comment didn’t surprise Roadhog, and it offended him even less. He’d been well aware of how badly the town would react to seeing him the moment he’d started heading towards it, but at the time he’d simply assumed that Mercy would talk their way through the situation. After all, she was a well renowned doctor and member of the popularly revived Overwatch. But after she got injured, it seemed that Roadhog hadn’t realized that his plans would need to change; after all, if he walked into that town with a horribly injured Mercy in his arms, it wouldn’t be hard to guess what they’d think he did. Torbjörn had thought the same thing not too long ago, after all. 

“Then what?” Roadhog glanced at Torbjörn. “Only Mercy goes in? We stay behind?”

“No, I don’t think we have to do that,” Torbjörn rubbed his chin. “We, we just have to assure the town that we’re not a threat somehow.”

Roadhog snorted, surveying the dirty and bloody appearances of the bastion unit and famed criminal walking in the group. “Good luck,” he turned ahead. 

“We can do it!” Torbjörn cried indignantly, running up to Roadhog’s side. “Try and cooperate here!”

Roadhog glared down at him, growling. “Like what?”

“Well, I’m sure the town would appreciate it if you didn’t have your weapons on you-”

“Fuck off,” Roadhog snapped, looking back ahead. 

“What other ideas do you have?!” Torbjörn jumped, trying to get Roadhog to look at him. “Quit being so stubborn! When we get to that town, you’ll need to hand over your weapons over to them-”

Roadhog whirled on Torbjörn, his tall figure hunched over the annoying dwarf. “ _ You _ ,” he snarled. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

Torbjörn didn’t seem all that affected by Roadhog’s intimidating stature, as he simply crossed his arms and tapped his foot. “They’re not going to help us unless we make some sort of compromise! What, you planning to just let Mercy  _ die _ after all this-”

Roadhog gave a quick growl to warn him to stop talking. Torbjörn was smart enough to comply, although he still gave a stubborn glare the junker’s way. Roadhog pointedly ignored it. He glanced down at the doctor lying back in his arm; her skin somehow seemed even paler than before and deep bags were around her eyes that made it seem almost like they were sinking into her skull. Her eyes were closed, but the expression on her face showed anything but comfort and calm.

Needless to say, she wasn’t doing well. 

Roadhog sighed to himself a little, although it was more akin to a groan than anything else. 

_ This is fine _ . Roadhog had survived in the fucking Wasteland with a maniac like  _ Junkrat _ with no problem. He’d figure a way out of this before they arrived. 

 

\---

 

_ What a fucking joke,  _ Roadhog thought to himself with a bitter laugh. What was that quote about hindsight again? Man, wasn’t this whole situation just  _ hilarious;  _ Here he was, stuck with a bunch of civilians, waiting to be chased down by terrorists and omnics. It was the  _ perfect  _ time to not have any weapons. Once again, everyone here was a dumbass. 

The whole situation would’ve been a lot funnier if it was happening to someone else. Maybe like one of those dumb junkers he’d see trying to rummage through his stuff during the night. Yeah, it’d be pretty funny to watch this shitshow go down with one of  _ those  _ idiots. 

A familiar--but terrifying--combination of sounds of clunking metal and beeping quickly snapped Roadhog out of the mental image, as he jerked his head up to meet the stare of the bastion unit that was standing in the doorway of his room. 

He immediately felt all the muscles in him tense up as he abruptly stood up to face the Bastion. The omnic didn’t run away the moment it saw him (which was quite surprising, and a little nerve wracking), simply leaning one of its hands on the doorway, almost as if it was waiting for permission to enter. 

Roadhog vaguely remembered Torbjörn mentioning for him to try and not provoke the Bastion, as doing so came with a chance of activating its self defense protocol and making it turn into a sentry turret. And while Roadhog had some doubts with that (considering he’d grabbed it and held it at gunpoint when they first met without any problems), he decided not to risk it-- _ especially  _ while he had so little to defend himself--and opted to not take a step towards the omnic.  

The Bastion seemed to have been waiting for a response from Roadhog, so when it got none aside from him standing up, it began to slowly make its way through the room, making careful side steps with its arms up. Roadhog followed its movements with narrowed eyes.  _ What the hell does it even want? _

The two of them were quiet for another minute, with Bastion carefully tiptoeing its way through Roadhog’s room, and the junker having sit back down on his bed, although his focus didn’t change. The entire experience felt extremely uncomfortable, and funny enough, mildly disturbing. The Bastion was acting so animated compared to how he’d seen other omnics act; even without the ability to speak English or make any sort of facial features, it seemed to brandish clear emotions. 

Which was fucking ridiculous. How the hell does a walking gun get emotions? Who would spend this much time programming in all this body language into some dumb bot? 

_ I bet it’s Torbjörn,  _ he thought with contempt, sneering a little to himself. 

“Hey, Roadhog, I-” Both Roadhog and the Bastion froze as a familiar voice entered through the doorway, which cut off at the scene before her.

Mercy was standing in the doorway, her hands behind her back and her shoulders rising at the sight of the Bastion. She gave a wide-eyed glance towards Roadhog, as if silently asking him what was going on, to which he offered a small shrug.  

She furrowed her eyebrows at the half-assed response, before beginning to carefully make her way across the room, too. The Bastion didn’t seem to pay her any attention as she settled on the bed next to Roadhog, the both of them staring at the omnic as she did so. 

She crossed her legs, placing a hand in her lap as the Bastion began rummaging through one of the dressers. Roadhog wanted to protest, but considering how well his silence had been going he kept it up. 

Eventually, the Bastion’s head popped back out of the dresser, a small plastic bag filled with what looked like bird seed in its hand. And the moment it had gotten what it wanted, the Bastion quickly made its way out of the room, not bothering to close the door on its way out. 

Roadhog and Mercy were silent for a little bit, both of them likely taking in the scene that had just occurred, before Mercy spoke up. 

“You know, I never would’ve expected Torbjörn to go and befriend an omnic. And a Bastion unit, no less.”

Roadhog grunted, agreeing with her. While he didn’t know Torbjörn that well, not many people old enough to remember the crisis were very friendly with omnics in general. 

“Although I suppose everyone’s also feeling similar, considering you wandered into town with me and demanded a doctor as if you cared for me.”

Roadhog chuckled a little at that. “They bother you?”

“Not really,” Mercy shrugged, before nonchalantly pulling her hands out from behind her back and handing Roadhog a fully stuffed, fully repaired pachimari. “I did get a lot of weird looks patching this up, though.”

Roadhog didn’t say anything, simply taking the plush and beginning to turn it over in his hands. It was a little overstuffed, so some parts of the plush were a bit stiffer than others, and the squeaker inside had been lost long ago, but the fabric was finally clean again and the tear was fixed. He ran a thumb across the stitched-up slash across its face. “Looks like a scar,” he commented, looking at the way it cut through the pachimari’s eye. 

“Yes, well, while I suppose that’s part convenience of where the tear happened, I need to remind you that I’m a doctor. Of course my stitching looks it’s for a wound.”

She had a point, although Roadhog didn’t mention it out loud. Still, he liked the new appearance on the plush; it was almost worth having carried it for so long (even though Mercy carried it most of the way, even when she was unconscious).Yet, as he continued to stare at it, Roadhog began thinking something.  _ Junkrat would probably like the scar too.  _

It’d felt like a long time since he’d seen Junkrat. 

“You called Overwatch.” 

Mercy glanced at him in a brief moment of surprise, before the expression was washed away and looked down. “I wouldn’t say called per say, but I sent out an S.O.S. message for sure.”

“You mention me?”

“I-” Mercy hesitated, and he glanced over to see there was a mixture of worry, guilt, and realization in her expression. “I did. I said us both were in this town, together.”

“They still have Junkrat.”

“I don’t know, actually,” Mercy rubbed an eye. “Torbjörn mentioned that some of the Overwatch agents went rogue, taking Mr. Fawkes with them.”

“They’ll probably want me even more then.”

Mercy sighed, staring ahead. “I’m guessing you don’t want to go into Overwatch?”

Roadhog snorted a little at the absurdity of the question. Of course not, he’d end up charged for all his crimes and be given fifteen life sentences at  _ least.  _ Did Germany have the death penalty? If not, maybe they’d make an exception for him. 

“So what do you want me to do? I’ve already sent the message. Are you planning to leave me behind so I can just wait for Overwatch and tell them  _ sorry, _ you ran off before they got here?”

A part of Roadhog wanted to say yes, just to see how good of a liar Mercy was. He only gave a shrug, though. 

The two of them descended into silence again, as Mercy seemed to be thinking of something else. She rested her head in one hand, not looking at Roadhog. He briefly wondered if she was actually considering a genuine fib on how to explain his hypothetical disappearance, before she spoke up again. 

“Why didn’t you kill me, back when we were in that ditch? You should’ve known we’d end up in a situation like this eventually, if we ever managed to survive that forest.”

She looked up at Roadhog, her expression fully focused on him, ready to analyze every bit of his body language for an answer. 

The sight put Roadhog in the mood to be blunt. “Bargaining chip,” he shrugged, looking away. 

Mercy let out a quick snort at that, a hand covering her face. “That’s, that’s what I expected. Nothing else seemed to make sense. Aside from you needing me to work the staff, but you didn’t know that at the time.”

For most people, they’d probably be offended that someone would assume intentions like planning to hold a hostage, but considering Roadhog’s track record, it just seemed reasonable and logical. 

“I’ll have to say though, that’s the most direct response I’ve ever gotten from you. Or maybe the truth just hurts a little more this time?” she added sarcastically. “Is that your plan for when Overwatch arrives, then? Use me to bargain for your escape?”

Roadhog gave the most non-ambiguous grunt he could. 

“Great,” Mercy muttered to herself, her eyebrows furrowing, although Roadhog wasn’t sure why she seemed frustrated. Was it because he stopped giving her a straight answer or because she interpreted his answer her own way? 

He glanced over at the doctor to see that she was hunched into one hand, and the other was tapping a finger on one knee. She seemed to be deep in thought, her mind working a mile a minute, and Roadhog patiently waited to see what she’d say. 

He heard a deep, exasperated sigh come from Mercy before she spoke. 

“Well, how...would  _ you,  _ uh...like to...join Overwatch?”

Roadhog turned to stare at her, not saying a word, just to convey that he  _ must  _ have misheard her or that she went insane in the span of thirty seconds. 

It wasn’t implausible; He’d seen it before, back in the Wastelands. 

“It’s an... _ idea _ , and I’m not sure how Overwatch would  _ approve  _ of it, but…” Mercy glanced away. “We both know that Talon’s targeting both you and Junkrat. And in my personal opinion, it’s best if we manage to get you under the security of Overwatch, one way or another. It doesn’t have to be as a prisoner. If...we can somehow make you a  _ member  _ instead, would you be willing to come with me back to Overwatch?”

Roadhog continued staring at her. In a way, the idea made sense; There’s no way he’d cooperate if they showed up to arrest him alongside rescuing Mercy, and becoming a member seemed like a better alternative to it. 

But Mercy wasn’t that persuasive. It was clear she herself wasn’t sure if she could even make this ridiculous request of Overwatch; sure, she was an important and influential figure of the organization, but with the UN breathing down their necks the whole time, he doubted Mercy could do much for either of the junkers. 

But...what if she somehow managed to do it though, keep Roadhog (and maybe even Junkrat) away from a cell? It’d be hard to adjust, with rules being put over their chaotic nature and limits put on their greed. Hell, would they take Roadhog’s weapons again? What would Junkrat do if they took away his explosives? How the hell could the junkers possibly expect to enjoy being in Overwatch in any way?

Especially for Roadhog, who had gotten used to travelling mostly alone after all these years of being in the Wasteland. Sure he’d trekked with Junkrat and Mercy, but it was always just one other person. But in Overwatch, he’d be  _ surrounded  _ by people, almost none of them he knew, and they’d all likely be reacting the same way as the townspeople: stupidly and cowardly. 

No, that idea sounded awful. He hated it.

Roadhog turned his head away from Mercy, trying to look out the window and saying nothing to her offer. Mercy seemed to correctly interpret the break in eye contact, as he heard a resigned sigh come from behind him. 

“It was just an idea I was throwing out, but I understand. Still, we need to figure out  _ something.  _ We don’t know when Overwatch will be able to come and pick me up. It could be a month, it could be tomorrow. What are you going to do when that happens?”

And with that, Mercy hopped out of the bed and left the room, closing the door behind her and leaving Roadhog to try and not think about her questions.  

 

\---

 

Hana had been spending her time passively listening to the technobabble between Symmetra and Junkrat, absentmindedly playing a small game on the side when a small notification appeared on her screen. 

She narrowed eyes at the blinking light.  _ A message?  _ She glanced over at the others to see if they could hear the beeping, but like many of the Mecha’s functions the noise was exclusively for Hana’s ears only. Sometimes she’d forget that she was wearing headphones. 

She opened up the file to show the message, furrowing her eyebrows at the sender.  _ Emergency message? From South Korea? How?  _ She did a quick tap on her controls and opened it up. 

_ From: Athena  _

 

_ Below is an exact copy of an SOS message we’ve received from Doctor Ziegler.  _

_ Please make good use of it, and quickly.  _

 

Her eyes flickered over the content of the message below, and shock began to overtake her. 

“Oh my god!” Hana yelled, stopping the Mecha and drawing the attention of the rest of the group. 

“What is it?” Amelie asked, taking a few steps towards Hana with a curious tilt of her head

“We’ve just got a message from Overwatch!”

Amelie froze. “ _ What _ ?”

“Check it out!” Hana quickly flipped the image so that the others outside could read it. She watched as three pairs of eyes slowly moved from side to side, before all widening at once. Junkrat was the first to speak. 

“Woohoo!” He jumped into the air. “We’re gonna find Roadie!”

“And Angela!” Symmetra interjected.

“Athena said to look quickly, though. I wonder why,” Hana set the message aside so she could see through the dome of her Mecha again. 

“Well, the message said both Angie and Roadhog are together. No doubt it’s taking all she can to keep him in control,” Amelie narrowed her eyes. 

“There’s no time to waste!” Junkrat shouted, clearly ignoring Amelie’s remark about Roadhog. He ran out of Hana’s point of view, before she suddenly heard something collide with the back of her Mecha and slide down a little. “Hey, what are you doing?!” She yelled.

“He’s climbing your Mecha,” Symmetra explained, watching the scene with an unamused expression.

Junkrat didn’t seem to pick up on their sour moods as he finally got a grip on one of the Mecha’s top fins and pulled himself up. “Come on, let’s move! Rocket us to that town!”

Hana looked over at Symmetra and Amelie with a raised eyebrow. “Well, I guess our group  _ could  _ move faster if I’m carrying you.”

“It’s for Angela,” Symmetra murmured, mostly to herself. “But can we all even fit? And what about fuel?”

Hana shrugged. “It might exhaust my jets carrying so much added weight, but since we’re not wandering anymore, I doubt that’s a problem.” She grinned a little. “So jump on! We’ve got an agent to catch.” 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This pachimari has been brought up so much that this chapter has felt like I'm finishing up a character arc. We'll probably be seeing a lot less of it now that it's been repaired. Or not, it's a really easy conversation starter between these two
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter, because unfortunately I'm gonna be going on a hiatus here for at least a couple weeks as I'll be travelling. I'll be able to write while I'm gone, don't worry, I just wn't be able to upload any of it. 
> 
> I never expected to get this far in this fic and to have this many responses to it, and it still blows my mind. I'm expecting this fic to end at most Chapter 25 if I overestimate it a little


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I'm back! But not consistently!

The engines of Hana’s mech had started to become monotonous to her, and she desperately needed a change of pace; She’d already set her commands to lock on the engine, so that she wasn’t just holding a button the whole time and killing her fingers. As she fiddled her settings, she almost missed the murmuring from the group up above her. 

“Why the hell would Roadie be stuck with what’s-her-name?” Junkrat’s voice cut through the most as always.

“She has a name Junkrat, we’ve said this before,” Amelie’s exasperation was clear in her tone of voice. 

“He brings up a good point, though,” Symmetra spoke up. “Why would they be together? At least, long enough for it to be mentioned in a message?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Hana could almost imagine seeing Amelie’s raised eyebrow. “She mentioned that they were in a town. They must have captured Roadhog, I’m sure they have a prison to hold them.”

“Aw, no way Roadie would be caught by some dumbass civvies!” Junkrat protested. 

Symmetra hummed. “Roadhog is very strong, and we don’t know what state he currently is in. Remember how much Angie talked about his—how do you say—‘breathers?” Perhaps it’s the other way around. Roadhog could be holding her hostage.”

“And what, force Angela to send out a message to Overwatch?” Amelie asked, incredulous. “What would he gain from that?”

“Last he knew, Overwatch had taken hold of Junkrat. He may be planning to use Angela as a bargaining chip to get his partner back.” Symmetra’s voice redirected towards the Junker. “Has Roadhog ever had to break you out of a hostage situation?”

There was a beat of silence, and Hana could only guess that Junkrat was thinking on the question. “Couple times, yeah.” 

“How did he handle each one?”

“Brute force, some explosions, the usual.”

Hana heard Symmetra sigh, and couldn’t help but feel the same. “He could’ve changed tactics this time around,” Hana piped up. 

“Of course. He’s quite intelligent, and not nearly as mad as Junkrat,” Symmetra ignored Junkrat’s brief noise of protest, “This is in the realm of possibility here.”

“Although,” Hana started slowly. “This is all just assuming they crossed paths recently.”

Silence. “What are you saying?” Amelie spoke up.

“I’m just saying, stuck in these woods for almost a week, if they met before that, it’s possible an alliance or ceasefire could’ve been arranged. If there was a bigger problem, like say, bastion units running around in the forest, I’m sure it’s possible” Hana shrugged, feeling a little unsure of the suggestion, but still feeling that it was necessary to throw out there, especially considering how dangerous they’d found the forest to be. 

Amelie hummed. “I suppose they  _ could,  _ considering we managed to cooperate with Junkrat on some level. Still,” Amelie laughed a little. “Roadhog and Angela, it’s a bit strange to think about.”

“Tell me about it,” Junkrat muttered. 

“It’s just a possibility,” Hana backtracked a little. “But if it’s true, I suppose you’ll have to prepare yourself to the idea, just in case.”

“I suppose so,” Amelie responded, and Hana could hear the smile in her voice, although there was a tinge of doubt surrounding it. Hana couldn’t blame her; it was already strange enough having the rescue party working alongside Junkrat, she wasn’t sure how she’d take it if it turned out the other side was doing something similar this whole time. 

 

—-

 

Fixing her staff again had become an utter  _ nightmare,  _ and with each passing hour Mercy’s curses towards Sombra and her omnics only increased in both number and profanity _.  _ The first problem that arose from the repair job was trying to undo at least  _ some  _ of the denting that stupid OR14 had caused, and while straightening a  _ normal  _ metal pole would be annoying enough,  _ this  _ one was filled with delicate, expensive machinery that Angela somehow had to figure out how to protect from further damaging while she worked. 

Eventually, she’d decided that the parts around the bend were already broken enough, and that treating this like a surgery was unreasonable, and began pulling them out of the staff entirely to at least allow more elbow room for readjusting the staff. She’d have to repair them and put them back in the staff later it seemed, back when she had more equipment and spare parts in the Overwatch Headquarters. 

_ Overwatch.  _ Just thinking about that organization brought her thoughts to the distress signal. Had they picked it up? When would they be arriving, if at all? And what would Roadhog do in all of it?

That conversation they’d had earlier that day was still fresh in her memory, and was still bothering her. Ever since that ditch, she’d maneuvered her way around and with Roadhog by speaking to him, negotiating, joking,  _ anything.  _ And it always seemed to work, to some extent; enough to make him eventually willing to carry her through a forest while she was half-dead. 

But this was the first time speaking with Roadhog, talking things out, had hit a brick wall. Roadhog didn’t trust her ability to keep him out of prison, and she honestly couldn’t blame him; yet, she couldn’t just let him  _ leave,  _ not after everything. And one of the more uncomfortable facts was that he was still a criminal, she was a member of Overwatch, and Angela had a duty to fulfill if she couldn’t avoid it. 

Every option seemed to be pointing to restraining Roadhog while they still have the chance and waiting for Overwatch to pick the both of them up. The idea made her feel disgusted. He saves her life when he could’ve easily taken the bandages for himself, when she was  _ insisting on it,  _ dealt with civilians, Torbjörn, and a strange  _ bastion  _ to get her to proper medical attention. And what, now she was just to turn around, stab him in the back, and throw him in jail?

The feeling of guilt at even considering arresting him she knew was wrong and irrational. It didn’t matter that they’d developed a strange friendship in that forest, it couldn’t erase anything and everything that he’s done, across the entire world. Why should  _ she  _ care about betraying him? He’s a criminal, he’s surely done it plenty of times, and he’d been expecting it this whole time. 

Angela gave a loud sigh and rubbed her face with her hands. She stared at her desk, holding the bent staff and covered in small mechanical parts she’d gutted from aforementioned staff, and leaned back in her chair. She’d done plenty for now, she needed a break or else she’d do more harm than good to her precious piece of technology. 

Angela quickly stepped away from the desk and moved to the nearby bed, flopping back on it dramatically. The halo on her head shifted as she rested her head on the pillow; Torbjörn had successfully detached it from the radio with minimal damage, and she’d been wearing it since. She never realized how attached she’d gotten to the piece of tech. Absentmindedly, she tapped her fingers across its side and pulled up the display in front of her eyes. 

A series of comfortingly familiar numbers and names flashed before her, everything seemingly normal even after Torbjörn’s reckless manhandling. 

And that was when several bold, yellow outlines appeared on the edge of her display, and she found herself staring at a wall to get a better glance of it. Through the wall, she saw the large and round shape of Roadhog, asleep on his side in his room, and the pachimari sitting on the shelf next to him. 

Angela furrowed her eyebrows.  _ That’s right, I put a bookmark on him, back in front of Eichenwalde castle.  _ She thought back to their conversation, when she’d asked to do so. 

“ _ You’re deleting that bookmark once we get to town. _ ”

_ A promise is a promise,  _ she thought, turning her head back as she pressed more buttons on the side of the halo, and a bright prompt showed up on her screen. 

 

ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DELETE THIS BOOKMARK?

 

> YES < NO

 

Angela made a motion to select the “yes” option, but right before she could press down, something stopped her. Her finger hung in mid air, trembling slightly with the effort as she fell deep into thought. 

_ Should I...really delete this?  _ She thought, before she could stop herself. She had just recently promised to watch over Roadhog for the rest of the town, after all. She thought back to what Elicia had said, how he had been purposefully scaring the town members before she woke up. And now that she thought back, hadn’t she heard Roadhog yelling with Torbjörn before they arrived in town?

This many people, Angela knew, was putting Roadhog off edge. And she had no idea what an anxious Roadhog would do. The closest she could compare was back on the cliff, and that experience had caused his grip to leave several bruises on her. 

And the other civilians didn’t have rapid healing to allow those bruises to vanish very quickly. 

_ You have a responsibility,  _ she thought, sighing as she pressed “No” on the display, letting her arms flop back on the bed after doing so. She’d keep it for now, at least until she felt sure things were going smoothly again. And she couldn’t say that things were going well currently, especially based on Roadhog’s rejection of her offer to join Overwatch. It was very hazy as to what was going to be happening next for any of them, especially the junkers. 

She knew that she was betraying the promise she’d made to Roadhog, and that thought made her stomach twist a little, but he couldn’t find out if he didn’t wear the halo, after all.  _ And besides, this is only temporary,  _ she reasoned.  _ I’ll delete it eventually.  _

 

—-

 

It was late at night, and Roadhog couldn’t sleep  _ at all _ . He knew he’d likely be a bit more comfortable, if he removed the mask and allowed some fresh air to hit his face, but with so many people in the rooms nearby he didn’t want to risk having his face get spotted by some random asshat, especially while he was sleeping. 

Roadhog looked up at the door, illuminated by moonlight shining in between the closed curtains, double checking to make sure it was still locked. It was.

He sighed, leaning back onto the bed. It didn’t make him feel any safer. 

_ Any one of those fuckers could come in and pick the lock to slit my throat while I sleep,  _ a voice in the back of his head pointed out.  _ Or that bastion could come and fill me with holes. Or Overwatch will arrive at night and arrest me. Hell, even Mercy could grab a scalpel and cut me open— _

That was the moment Roadhog cut off that paranoid voice; Out of everyone in this stupid town, the doctor was probably the  _ last  _ one to even try killing him. Beside the fact of how much weaker she was than him physically (especially without any serious weapons), Roadhog knew that she wouldn’t try and hurt him. 

After all, if she really wanted him dead, she wouldn’t have healed him in those fights against the Bastions. Or insisted he bandage himself. Or stayed with him when she had every opportunity to abandon him in that forest. 

Or healed him in that ditch. 

Come to think of it, he’d forgotten to ask Mercy why she healed him, back when she asked why he spared her. He was already guessing the answer was similar to his own—bargaining chip—but on the other hand, Mercy also had a tendency to surprise him, so who knows. 

He was getting off topic, though. Even if the doctor was fine, that didn’t stop anyone else from wanting to kill him. Especially that stupid bastion. 

What the hell was up with that thing, anyways? It had that bird constantly hanging around it, the weird light in its head was blue instead of red, and it had somehow gotten on the good side of that dwarf. 

The thing probably hated  _ him _ , though, considering he’d put a gun up to its face. 

An image arose in his mind again, the Bastion with a red eye, moving past his window, staring at Roadhog’s unmoving form, gun raised-

Roadhog swung his legs off of the bed, sitting up and breathing heavily. He couldn’t do this, he couldn’t stand it anymore. The first night had been difficult enough already, but with each passing moment in this god forsaken town he grew more and more tense. 

He needed his gun, his hook, his breathers,  _ something  _ to defend himself with. 

They were in this town somewhere, he knew it. He stared at the door, beginning to get lost in thought as plans began to formulate in his mind.  _ If I were some stupid civilian and I needed to hide a criminal’s weapons, where would I put them? _

_ Chuck them in the forest?  _ No, they’d probably want something more protected. Not to mention, it’d piss Roadhog off, and he  _ really  _ didn’t want to need to kill anyone, with Overwatch likely arriving soon. 

They probably got a police station somewhere, right? Might not be too big, but they’ve probably got a place to put all the petty thieves and whatnot. Probably had a safe to confiscate shit. 

Roadhog got out of bed, trying to make his way through the room and into the hallway as quietly as possible, as a plan of searching began to formulate in his head.  _ Hopefully this won’t be too much of a pain in the ass.  _

 

\---

 

Turned out, the police station didn’t  _ have  _ a safe. At least, not one big enough for weapons of his size. Sure, the tiny cubby they had was enough to house some knives and drugs if they were found, but it certainly couldn’t fit a massive meat hook or gun filled with scrap. It’d taken the better part of an hour to actually find where the idiots had put his stuff, and by the end of it he couldn’t help but feel at least  _ slightly  _ pissed off at how stupid their hiding place ended up being. 

Roadhog stared down at his two weapons, shoved underneath a shelf in one of the hospital’s storage rooms and covered up with a small curtain attached to said shelf. It was so laughably rushed and lazy, Roadhog couldn’t help but wonder if it was a ruse. It’d been difficult to try and fit himself into this tiny-ass storage closet to grab his stuff, maybe this was part of a trap to immobilize him?

Nah, something that thought out was something you’d find dealing with a government organization, or a terrorist group, or even a few smarter-than-average suits. Y’know,  _ professionals.  _

From the looks of it, Roadhog’s stuff had been shoved elsewhere in the resounding chaos of their arrival, and ended up being forgotten about. Either that, or they were dumb enough to think a simple lock on a closet would be enough to stop him from finding his stuff. 

He stared down at the broken doorknob with little remorse as he slipped back out of the tiny closet, his meathook and gun tightly grasped in one hand. After settling both things on his belt where they belonged, he quietly shut the closet door, and stared out the windows on the opposite wall; the moon was still high in the air, and it didn’t seem that nightfall would be ending anytime soon.  _ Perfect.  _ He’d have more than enough time to sneak this stuff back in his own room without anyone being the wiser. Although, now that he looked at the broken doorknob again, it might pose a problem in terms of keeping his little late-night trip a secret. He wasn’t sure what to do about it though, considering he wasn’t sure he had the time or skill to stealthily replace a doorknob/door late at night in a heavily populated building. 

He looked both ways down the hallway; it was part of the less visited corners of the hospital, and considering his weapons had gotten forgotten here in the first place, it was unsure exactly how soon this closet would be checked up on. With any luck, anyone passing by wouldn’t think he was the cause of the destruction. 

He could only hope, with nothing else to do about it. He sighed a little to himself as he began to quietly move through the hallways again, making sure that his newly added chains weren’t clinking together too much. Still, despite the extra noise they caused, he was already feeling much more relieved and much less nervous wandering around in this civvie area. 

He seemed to be doing fine as he quietly stalked his way through the moonlit hallway, and he began to think of where he could hide his weapons back in the room he’d been provided with. It didn’t need to be anything extremely complicated, since he doubted they’d think he had things to put in it, and as such need searching. He thought back to the sight of the bastion, carefully sidestepping through his room and rummaging through the drawers. If that omnic was going to want to try something similar, he’d have to make sure it either couldn’t find the weapons or get in his room in the first place. 

Roadhog was deep in his thoughts as he turned the corner, but every part of him was jolted back to the present moment as he turned and was face to face with a pair of wide, shocked eyes. 

It was a man he didn’t recognize, presumably a member of the hospital staff judging by the blue uniform and he looked absolutely terrified at the sight of Roadhog standing before him. 

_ Well,  _ he thought, annoyance and frustration slowly rising in his throat.  _ Might as well take advantage of that fear.  _

Roadhog straightened himself up, trying to make all eight feet of himself tower over the young man as imposingly as possible. A part of him wondered if it’d scare the man into running away, but luckily his original intuition was proven correct, as the man began to curl in on himself in fear, his wide eyes giving away the fact that he was frozen to the spot. 

Roadhog’s fingers curled around the familiar handle of his gun, and he barely raised it so that it was aiming straight towards the man. His eyes focused in on it, sweat dripping down on his face. 

“You will tell  _ no one _ of this,” Roadhog growled, speaking slowly because he knew it sounded more intimidating to idiots like this. “Or you, and everyone else in this crummy town, will  _ pay  _ for it. Understand?”

The man began frantically nodding, his hands clasped together. HIs eyes were bugged out of his skull, and Roadhog guessed that if he tried to speak he’d be a blubbering mess. Luckily, his message came across clearly enough. 

Roadhog leaned back. “Good, now  _ get out  _ of here before I change my mind.” He snarled. 

The man gave a small whimper, before scrambling down the hallway and vanishing from sight. 

Feeling mostly satisfied with the bout of intimidation, Roadhog began moving down the hallway again, and soon enough he’d made it all the way back to his room. 

Feeling tired after spending those couple of hours searching, Roadhog quickly shoved his weapons into the dresser, reminding himself to take care of it once he woke up again. 

But for now, he slumped back onto the bed, feeling at least a little more comfortable now, even despite the disaster of getting caught. With any luck the man would keep his word, at least out of fear, until Roadhog could find a way out of this corner he’d gotten himself into. And, Roadhog supposed, if the man really did end up selling him out, at least he had something to defend himself with when it happened. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm finally back, but due to my workload beginning to ramp up I can't guarantee that I'll be as (kinda) consistent as before. I'll still try, since I have lots of plans and I want to finish up this fic now that I'm so close(!!!!), but with what's ahead I can't make any promises. 
> 
> Anyways, this fic is almost at 2k hits and I can't wait!!!


	20. Chapter 20

Angela gavethree precise knocks on Roadhog’s door and patiently waited for a response. She vaguely heard a low, quiet groan from the other side, and for what seemed like the fifth time that morning, she doubted  as to whether this is really a good idea. 

It had come to her in the early hours of the day, when she’d been trying to fall asleep again after waking up early by accident. Unfortunately, the wave of thoughts swirling through her mind hadn’t let her sleep, so she eventually went and had breakfast and accepted that she was starting the day with this, no matter how tired it left her. 

All those hours being up before a large portion of the town and being left to think on her own in the silence had given Angela an idea she hadn’t been able to shake off since. 

She wasn’t an idiot, she could see how much being cooped up in this small town was bothering Roadhog. The way he’d treated the staff before she woke up was solid proof of that: he was bored. And a bored Roadhog could only bring nothing but trouble. 

It made Angela think how much of his crime sprees with Junkrat were out of boredom. Probably all of them, now that she thought about it. 

Angela was struck out of her thoughts as the door opened up, and she looked up at the aforementioned junker towering over her. His shoulders were slumped and the way his body was tilted showed how tired he was. Angela frowned for a moment, wondering what had kept him up, before quickly wiping the expression off of her face and giving a small smile. “I can tell you’re a morning person,” she tried joking.

“What do you want,” Roadhog’s voice was so slurred Angela almost didn’t understand what he said and had to take a moment to process and understand his question. 

Yeah, he was definitely tired. 

“You need to get out of this building,” Angela proclaimed, straightening her posture and crossing her arms. “How about we stroll around town?”

Roadhog tilted his head, looking out the window, before turning back to Angela. “Why?”

“I’m a doctor, Roadhog,” Angela raised an eyebrow. “I can tell when someone’s about to start fusing with their walls.”

Roadhog didn’t seem to have a proper response to that, which was still a little surprising. He tilted his head, his goggles focusing on her for a moment. “You sure?”

Angela briefly chewed on the inside of her cheek before nodding. “That bastion’s sticking in its room, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

The junker was quiet for another moment, before finally nodding with a grunt. “Fine.”

Angela grinned, trying to keep her anxiety out of her expression. That was step two completed of her “Getting Roadhog Some Fresh Air Without Killing Anyone” plan, and she tried her best to be optimistic that nothing would go wrong.  _ Please, please let this go well. At least don’t let it end in gunfire or explosions or something like that.  _

 

\---

 

It was a sunny day, although it didn’t feel that hot. Roadhog supposed that was more because of himself, considering he was used to the radiated and scorching wastelands back in Australia. 

It was clear that wasn’t the case for the others, at least for the civvies. They were sweating all over the place, enjoying cool drinks, pulling out fans, the usual. Mercy, surprisingly, seemed fine, although now that he thought about it she’d probably gotten used to heat like this with how much she travelled. 

Roadhog wasn’t sure why Mercy had insisted on taking him on this walk. Was there some lovely scenery he’d missed on the way in? Because as it was going so far, everything just seemed to be an ordinary-ass town in a boring-ass forest that he’d seen enough after being stranded in it for a week. 

At the very least, the walk was providing a better way to stretch his legs than sneaking through the hallways of a hospital at night. 

But was that the only reason Mercy had decided to drag him out here? A part of him couldn’t help but feel suspicious. It was probably related to the part of him that thought she’d try and slit his throat. 

The two of them stopped by the park in the center of town, catching an expected amount of wide-eyed stares and parents holding their children close to them as they passed by. Mercy either didn’t notice them or didn’t care, as she didn’t even blink as she sat down on one of the park benches. Roadhog sat on the ground next to the bench. 

Mercy raised an eyebrow. “Is that really necessary? I think the bench has enough room.”

Roadhog shrugged. “Probably not enough strength.”

“Eh, I suppose that’s fair.”

The remark left the two of them to enter an admittedly awkward silence, and Roadhog found himself looking at the scene before him. There was a stone fountain up ahead of them, benches around its four sides. It was mostly just a pretty area for people to pass through on their way to some errands, but he could see some parents stopping as they crossed paths and talking while their children, not interested in their conversations, moved over to stare at the fountain or stare at the flower beds. 

There was a noticeable lack of the children running around though, or at the very least a notable shift in where they were, opting to stay more on the side of the fountain opposite to where Mercy and him were sitting. 

Roadhog groaned to himself. The sight before him was familiar enough to the point of being dull. He saw Mercy glance his way, clearly reading that he wanted to say something. 

“Why are we here?” he growled, his voice coming out a lot more impatient and harsh than he’d originally expected.

Mercy’s brows furrowed and her lips pressed into a thin line, but eventually it seemed as if she gave up on giving anything but the honest truth as she sighed. 

“You’ve been tense.”

“Yes,” Roadhog snorted.  _ What’s she planning to do, make me go do some yoga and drink grass juice? _

Mercy frowned at Roadhog’s reaction and she gave a bit of a glare. “I thought it’d do you some good if you didn’t spend all your time cooped up in the corner of your room, nursing your paranoia.”

“And?”  _ What else? _

Mercy shrugged. “Talk. What else?”

Roadhog gave a warning growl. “I’m not turning into Overwa-“

“Not  _ that  _ kind of talk, Roadhog,” she interrupted. “ _ Dumb  _ talk.  _ Unimportant  _ talk. Like back in the forest, when we just talked about pachimaris and, and  _ ice cream  _ in between fights with raging bastions,” she laughed a little at herself, her hand on her forehead.

Roadhog looked over at Mercy, who seemed to be giving him a slight glare as her hands moved back down to her lap. He looked back over to the other people in the town square, and noticed them worriedly speaking with officers, who raised a palm and seemed to calm them down. In the corner of his eye, he saw one of the officers look over at Mercy and nod. 

_ Ah, this was planned. Suppose that makes sense.  _ He pointedly ignored the thought in the back of his mind that was screaming that it must be a trap. He stared at the officers murmuring to each other once people turned away from them, looking just as worried as the civvies they’d been comforting just moments ago.  _ I wonder how long it took for Mercy to convince them to let her do this.  _

_ And here I am, being an asshole about it.  _

He sighed to himself.  _ This is so stupid,  _ he tried complaining to himself.

“How do you know the sniper?”

He saw Mercy’s head whip around in shock, before hearing a brief snort. “I thought you didn’t want questions about Overwatch.”

“You know what I meant, dipshit,” Roadhog retorted, although there wasn’t any bite behind the insult. 

It was clear Mercy understood, as she laughed at his reply. “It is...a weird case, I suppose. How long have you been waiting to ask that?”

Roadhog shrugged. “Little while, I guess.”

“I’m guessing you’ve already heard the official report about what happened?”

“Something about rehab.”

“Heh, well, that’s one way to put it. Essentially, she’d had her personality altered without her consent through illegal modifications to her physiology and psyche.”

“I don’t have a PhD,” Roadhog spoke up before she could continue. 

“I was already speaking with that in mind. Could you seriously not understand what I was saying?”

“More like I stopped listening.”

Roadhog heard a groan come from Mercy, and he grinned to himself. “ _ Fine _ . Since you’re so easily bored, here’s the shorter version: A doctor messed up her body and mind and turned her purple.”

“And the outfit?”

“That...I’m not so sure of. I know that Amelie likes wearing tighter-fitting outfits, but considering the complete impracticality of it, I can only guess that it was assigned to her by Talon.”

Roadhog snickered. “Perverts.”

“Yes, they are,” at the lack of humor in her agreement, Roadhog glanced at Mercy and felt a little surprised to see her glowering at the ground. He supposes that he should’ve expected the reaction, the sniper had always seemed to be a soft spot for the doctor, including that construction girl. “...Eventually, Amelie approached me and asked to reverse the effects Talon had done to her. That’s what made me join Overwatch, in fact: I needed funding and supplies for her rehabilitation that no one else was willing to provide.”

“Is that it?”

“Well, no,” Mercy glanced away and blushed. “But I’m sure you wouldn’t care for the details.”

_ Hm. Probably not.  _ Roadhog nodded in understanding. 

“What about you? How did you end up working for, erm...Junkrat?”

Roadhog tilted his head to the side, hearing a few pops come from it, and sighed to himself. “Beat down at a bar. He hired me, fifty-fifty.”

He glanced over to see Mercy’s reaction, and it was pretty much what he’d expected. Her eyes were narrowed in confusion, and soon enough a question followed. 

“Wait—did you just randomly decide to beat someone up at a bar and Junkrat and decided to hire you?”

Roadhog shook his head. “Nah. Stopped some of the Queen’s men from muggin’ him.”

“And why’d you do that, if you didn’t know him?”

“...Can’t say.”

Mercy gave out a frustrated groan. “Sometimes, this no-talking thing you do is unbearable. How does Junkrat handle it?”

Roadhog snorted. “Doesn’t notice. Keeps talking.”

He heard Mercy laugh a little. “I don’t think I can make nearly enough conversations with myself to make up with how little you talk _. _ ”

He shrugged. “Guess he’s just talented.”

“Talented with explosions and talking to himself,” Mercy mused to herself. “How impressive.”

Roadhog snickered, and Mercy began to continue talking, but what she said afterward was suddenly lost on him as his gaze refocused and caught onto something familiar on the other side of the fountain. 

And he recognized Roadhog too, judging by the wide-eyed expression he was giving. 

It was the janitor from the night before, walking with a friend on the other side of the park. Their eyes briefly met during their respective friend’s conversations, and Roadhog tilted his head down at him, a simple but effective intimidation tactic to imitate the way he’d looked last night. It clearly worked, as the janitor visibly swallowed and gave a brief nod of his head before turning back to his friend with a shaky smile. 

“...oadhog?”

Roadhog turned his head back towards Mercy. “Hm?”

“What got you so distracted there? You don’t usually space out like that.”

Roadhog looked at Mercy’s curious and honest eyes, and was glad he had a mask on. “Thought I saw a bastion hiding a little farther off. Think it was just my imagination though.”

Mercy’s expression quickly became alarmed. “Really? Well, even if you think it was a trick of the eye, we should tell the head of the town. It’s possible the bastions could have followed us, you know? I doubt Talon would give up so easily.”

Roadhog simply nodded. 

Mercy rose from the bench. “Come on, let’s go tell him. Sorry we had to cut this short, but at least it was a little fun, right? Did it help you out?”

“Yeah,” Roadhog grunted. “It was. I guess it did.”

 

\---

 

“Euclid? Are you alright?”

The man in question blinked, and turned away from Roadhog to look at his friend Tanner, who was giving him a particularly worried expression. “You’ve been really out of it today. Is something wrong?”

Euclid’s eyes widened as he finally realized what his friend was asking, and frantically shook his head. “Oh, no! Everything’s fine!”

Tanner frowned. “It doesn’t seem like it.”

An image flashed through Euclid’s mind, the dark shadow standing over him, the way the moonlight reflected in those cold, emotionless goggles. The sound of rattling chains and heavy breathing that echoed through the quiet hallway of the hospital. He could’ve died there that night, and no one in the hospital staff would’ve found out until the morning, and only if Roadhog didn’t bother to clean up the mess. He wrung his hands together, trying to push the thought out of his mind, even though this was already his third attempt and it was obvious that it wasn’t going to work. He shook his head. “I’m fine Tanner, just the stress of working in the hospital getting to me. You know how everyone’s so nervous, with the, uh...guests.”

“Euclid,” he flinched as he felt something touch his shoulder, and quickly looked over to see that it was just Tanner. His expression was more concerned than ever. “You weren’t acting like this before today, and that criminal’s been here for longer than that. Something’s clearly happened recently. Why won’t you tell me what happened?”

Euclid swallowed dryly, before cautiously glancing over to the other side of the fountain, where he’d seen Roadhog sitting with that doctor. He felt a sense of relief flood through him at the sight of them both standing up and walking back to the hospital, before he frowned to himself. Tanner leaned over to try and look Euclid in the eye, and he avoided the gaze by focusing it on the ground. “I’m sorry, I’m not allowed to tell you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The hospital won’t let me.”

Euclid glanced over at Tanner to see his reaction, and felt his heart sink at the sight of Tanner’s narrowed eyes, who was clearly not buying the lie. “Euclid, you’re just a janitor. Why would the hospital tell you any secrets like that?”

Euclid could feel his heart rate increasing. “I, I wasn’t supposed to find out, but I guess, I ended up in the wrong time and place, ya know?” 

He laughed a little bitterly, wringing his hands together and once again looking away from Tanner. 

“Euclid,” his friend’s quiet voice murmured to his right, his grip on Euclid’s shoulder tightening a little. “I’ve never seen you this scared. Please, if something’s wrong, you can tell me. Do we need to go somewhere a little private?”

Euclid turned around to stare at Tanner with wide eyes, feeling even more surprised at the pleading expression he received. “If, if you’re in danger Euclid, let me help you. We can all help you. I could call the police, or, or, or if that can’t work or something, we can find someone else. But please, you can’t get help unless I know what’s happening.”

Euclid stared at his friend in shock, his tightly folded arms slowly unfurling from his chest. He turned back to the bench where Roadhog had been sitting by, and then towards the hospital, where he and the doctor were already out of sight. 

Euclid turned back to his friend’s hopeful eyes, and swallowed a little. He closed his eyes to calm his beating heart a little and took a deep breath. 

_ He’s right. I can’t be quiet with this, at least to protect the rest of the hospital.  _

“Y-you know me so well, Tanner,” Euclid laughed, although he couldn’t help but think how pathetic he sounded. “I, I do have something to tell you, and you’re, you’re not going to like it.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've really missed trying to keep a consistent schedule here, and I'm glad to say that I'm going to be trying for it again! We're approaching the last part of this story (which I'm really excited for btw), and with the way the future chapters have been outlined so far it seems that my estimated chapters for this chapter will be bumping up like 2, so for now I'm betting that this'll be over in about 27 chapters total. Quote me on that, I'd love to see how wrong I end up being.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have an excuse for this delay, so let's just hope that I'm on time next week. Enjoy the chapter!

“Sombra,” Reaper’s voice growled behind the hacker as he watched her tap on her violet screen. 

“What,” Sombra responded, her voice just as annoyed as his and looked over at him. 

Reaper was crouching next to the bastion unit that she was working on, one of his shotguns resting on his shoulder as he tapped his fingers on his knee impatiently. “Why is this one taking so long. The hell are you doing to it?”

She rolled her eyes at Reaper’s tone. “What, you think I’m just reactivating this one? No, no no no, I’m doing something  _ new  _ here.”

“And why are you doing that, exactly?” Moira asked from behind her. 

“This thing’s guns are pathetic, not to mention the missing arms. The most it could do is run at someone and hope to scratch them with this dented metal. Thus, I’m giving it exactly that job.”

Moira leaned over Sombra’s shoulder, and began reading the screen that Sombra was working on. She heard the doctor give an understanding and slightly excited hum. “And you can control it?”

Sombra rolled her eyes at the question. “What, unlike the others?”

“This is more dangerous if it went out of control,” Moira pointed out.

“And watch your goddamn tone,” Reaper interjected.

Sombra sighed. “ _ Sorry,  _ Gabe. I’ll take more care not to hurt your feelings.”

“Don’t start with that shit,” Reaper stood up and Sombra assumed he was glaring at her from under that mask. “You’re still on thin ice after that stunt you pulled before.”

Sombra frowned as she gave him a sideways glance. “I could tell that the doctor and her little criminal buddy were approaching a  _ lot  _ of old bots. I wanted to prepare them before they arrived, get a good chance of fighting and capturing them right then and there.”

“And how well did that work out?” Moira asked, her eyes half-lidded.

Sombra narrowed her eyes at Moira, not giving a response, before turning back to her screen and pressing a few more buttons with a bit more aggression than necessary. “There, it’s done. Let’s get moving.”

“Yes, let’s,” Reaper shifted into his wraith form and turned away. “You’ve already slowed us down enough.”

Sombra glared at his back, waving her hand over her face and feeling the faint yet  familiar sensation electricity running through her back. She began running after the shadow that was Reaper, and Moira did the same as she almost seemed to vanish midair. Sombra quickly glanced at her screen, making sure their group was moving in the right direction towards the bright yellow dot in the town. 

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

 

—-

 

Hana had been keeping an eye on the dark clouds rolling in their direction, but she hadn’t expected the wind to pick up and bring them over so soon. 

She’d only first noticed it when she heard a gentle tap on her front window, and she blinked and looked over to see a scatter of water droplets above her head. Then the tapping was followed by another. And another. 

She gave a groan as she was forced to slow down the jets on her mech until it was no longer flying, and made as gentle as a landing as possible for the sake of the other passengers who  _ didn’t  _ have shock absorbers for a seat. 

She heard something that sounded like a whine above her. “Why’re we stopping?” Junkrat’s shrill voice asked, and she looked over to see that he’d jumped off to look her in the eye with a little angry glare. 

Hana met the expression with a raised eyebrow. “This Mech’s going to get slippery in the rain. Do you want to fall off while we’re flying at top speeds?”

Junkrat pursed his lips for a moment, but before he could say yes (it seemed as if he was going to), Amelie walked into view and put a hand on his shoulder. 

“Hana’s right, Junkrat. None of us would be of any use if we’re injured by the time we find Angela and Roadhog, especially if we end up walking into a fight.”

Junkrat clicked his tongue. “What, you think you could fight off Roadie any better if you were in top shape?”

“I don’t know if that’s what Amelie’s thinking, but personally I’m more concerned about the rampant omnics and the Talon agents controlling them,” Symmetra stepped into view as well, interjecting into the conversation with her arms crossed.

Hana looked up as the rain began to quickly become denser, blanketing all of them in a sheet of continuously running droplets. She glanced at the others. Symmetra had begun to shiver a little, and surprisingly Junkrat only gave a few twitches every now and then from the downpour. After his dip in the lake and conversations about rain with the others, it had finally gotten through to Junkrat that this rain  _ wasn’t  _ going to melt his skin off the moment he touched it. Even better, it was something that he hadn’t forgotten during their trip, as had happened to so many other conversations and important instructions. 

She sighed a little to herself at this unfortunate turn of events, though. With the others no longer able to cling to her mech like before, their pace had slowed down significantly. They shouldn’t have to stop if they don’t have to. What could they do to fix this?

An idea suddenly popped in Hana’s mind, and she looked over at Symmetra. “Let’s keep walking. In the meantime, do you think you could try constructing grips for my mech, Symmetra?”

The woman in question looked up at Hana in surprise. “For your mech?”

Hana shrugged a little. “I dunno, if you manage to make some sort of handle to attach to the mech, we can move back to a better pace even in this rain.”

Symmetra smiled. “That’s not a bad idea. I’ll get on it immediately.”

Nodding, Hana turned to the others and pointed with her head. “Come on, let’s get under some better shelter from this rain. We need to keep moving.”

Everyone nodding in agreement, the group began to head out again, albeit at a much slower pace. 

 

—-

 

Angela listened to the way her heels clicked through the hallways of the hospital as she absentmindedly stared out the windows she was passing by. She and Roadhog had separated to go to their own rooms once they’d entered the hospital. She wondered if he’d caught sight of the nervous glance of affirmation from the nurse working at the front desk as they passed through the lobby, and the reassuring nod Angela had given her. 

It’d taken a while to convince the townspeople to let Roadhog and Angela wander out of the hospital and take that walk. Even though Roadhog wasn’t  _ technically  _ locked in the hospital, they seemed to like to act that he was when he simply didn’t like leaving his room. 

The town had set up people to watch over the two of them on their simple walk, and Angela couldn’t help but cringe at how obvious they’d been. She’d be more surprised if Roadhog  _ hadn’t  _ noticed them, considering how perceptive she knew he was. 

One thing that’d surprised her was Torbjörn’s decision to  _ not  _ be part of the overly obvious guard. However, the dwarf had simply crossed his arms and mentioned how the omnic would only make the criminal panic more. 

Angela had pointed out that Torbjörn could watch the two of them without the bastion, and she watched with slight amusement and disbelief as Torbjörn grimaced and grumbled at how it had been following him for a while now. 

She wondered what those two were even up to most of the time, but considering the town had given the bastion and Torbjörn a place to sleep much farther from the hospital, she didn’t get to talk to them that much. 

Not that they wanted to. Angela couldn’t help but feel that Torbjörn was holding a grudge against her for the alliance she’d made with Roadhog, and seemed to be avoiding her a little. 

Angela huffed to herself as she opened the door to her room, rubbing her head in frustration. She looked at the bright light shining through the window, and walked over to shut the curtains. She’d barely slept the night before, and the warmer temperature that came with the middle of the day had begun tiring her. She glanced over at the small bed, and then the desk next to it. She’d spent an unexpectedly large part of that night fixing her staff, finally taking care of the dent. She’d tried to see if she could put some of the parts back into the empty staff, but her hands had been shaking too much at that point and she eventually decided to at least get a couple hours of sleep. 

_ It’s still not enough, though,  _ a voice piped up in Angela’s head that sounded a bit like Satya. Amelie’s voice joined in.  _ You can’t help anyone if you're not helping yourself, Angie.  _

Giving a little sigh and a tired smile, she walked over to the bed and collapsed onto the sheets. She briefly wondered how Satya and Amelie were doing, considering their search party. Thinking of the two of them only made her thoughts trail back to Roadhog, and the difficult choice she was facing. She frowned, and sighed, trying to let herself relax. It felt like a weight pinned her down with every deep breath she took, and soon enough her eyes were flickering closed and she was fast asleep. 

Her little nap didn’t last for long, though. She vaguely remembered having a dream about rolling down a hill before she slowly stirred awake to the sounds of movement and murmuring outside of her room. 

Rubbing her eyes, Angela slowly pushed herself up out of the bed and looked towards the door where she was hearing the sounds come from. Narrowing her eyes, she cautiously moved across the room and opened the door to peek out of it. At the end of the hallway she saw several officers passing in and out of sight, speaking amongst themselves and waking Angela up. Furrowing her eyebrows, she quickly made her way over to the moving crowd, with some of them noticing her approach and seemed to grimace. 

“What's going on here?” Angela asked with a tilt of her head and a hint of authority in her voice. 

The cops stopped walking to look at each other with a concerned glance, before one stepped forward with a grim expression. “I’m sorry ma’am, but unfortunately it looks like that criminal of yours crossed a line last night and attacked our staff. We’re taking him in.”

 

—-

 

Roadhog kept his back pressed against the wall of his room, staring down the semicircle of cops trying to surround him with their tiny pistols shakily pointed at him. He gave a threatening growl towards the cops, and tightly gripped his own gun and hook. Only one lost his footing and took a step back in fear, which he had to give the group credit for considering how they were all clearly worried about getting too close. 

He hadn’t yet lifted his gun to fire yet, mainly because he knew that if he did, it’d be a last resort. The town had had the foresight to empty the gun of any ammo, and the bits and pieces of metal Roadhog had collected from the hospital’s trash and closets had only been enough for one (smaller than usual) shot. It’d still hurt them like hell, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough to stop all of the cops that were beginning to fill up the room. 

He groaned. They just kept coming in and blocking the exit, and all of them had a gun held up and pointed at him. 

“Drop the weapons!” A man yelled, walking to the front of the crowd. Roadhog could only guess that he was the chief, given the different outfit and the general demeanor. He too, had a weapon aimed and ready. 

Roadhog glanced over at him, rolling his neck and hearing a few pops from it. The grip on his hook only tightened. He wondered how many people he’d be able to get if he used it. Probably not that many, but if he grabbed the right ones he might be able to open up a path through the doorway. He briefly thought of grabbing a hostage, before giving up the thought after realizing he’d probably have to catch three or four of them to prevent the others from simply being able to shoot around the hostage. 

He briefly shifted his stance, trying to subtly get into a better position. The chief seemed to be either twitchy or have a good eye, as the barrel of his gun lit up and Roadhog felt a dull pain suddenly twitch in his arm. He grunted a little, more out of surprise that the chief actually had the balls to shoot him than out of pain. 

He looked over at the chief, trying to give a glare of warning, and the officer only replied with a surprisingly neutral expression and two more shots in his arm. Roadhog cursed to himself at the failed intimidation, his arm was starting to go numb and he couldn’t even press a hand onto the holes. 

He quickly began trying to come up with a new plan now that one of his arms was slowed down, when he suddenly heard the people behind the front officers shifting around and murmuring. Rising among their small protests, Roadhog heard a familiar voice cut through and he felt himself split down the middle between relief and dread. 

He watched the head of bright blonde hair become visible and move through the sea of the officers’ blue hats, and soon enough Mercy’s face became visible as well once she made it to the front. 

Her hair was in a tangled mess, part of it covering one of her eyes, and he could tell that she was angry, if a little bit confused. The bright blue eye that Roadhog could still see scanned over the situation before her, narrowed and almost unreadable. 

“What in the world is going on here?” She seemed to almost growl, looking between the chief and then Roadhog. 

He didn’t respond to Mercy’s comment or stare, simply working to keep his breathing steady as the bullet holes in his arm beginning to ache. 

The chief walked up to Mercy’s side, murmuring into her ear with what Roadhog could assume was a brief rundown of the current situation. He couldn’t help but feel his stomach drop at that thought as he watched Mercy’s eyes widen and the piercing blue iris focused in on him from behind her bangs, like someone looking from around a curtain. She seemed to almost be interrogating him with that stare, or trying to look into his mind and see if the chief was telling the truth. 

With the way her eyebrows furrowed in a way that almost looked betrayed, he could only assume how much of the chief’s story had been believed. 

And that conclusion only solidified itself as Mercy folded her hands together, and quietly stepped back away from Roadhog and into the crowd again, letting the officers step toward him again. They repeated their demands for him to drop his weapons and raise his hands. At the very least, he assumed that’s what they said from seeing the way their mouths moved. His mind had gone fuzzy, and the grip on the hook and gun slackened. 

There was a dull thud as they hit the ground, and the officers swarmed after him the moment they touched the wood floor. He didn’t pay attention to them, though. All he was staring at was that bright blue eye staring from behind her messy blonde hair, emotionless, and then turning away. . 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell I was listening to slightly dramatic music while writing this chapter


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I got the chapter in on time! And on that note, I'll unfortunately have to tell you that it's going to be delayed again in this coming month. I'm expecting a lot of schoolwork this October, and unfortunately won't have the free time to work on this. This'll result in one of two things: either I don't touch this fic at all this coming month because I've had these scenes in my head since the beginning and I'm nervous at getting it right (and you'll get the chapter about a week or two into December), or specifically /because/ I've been thinking about these scenes the whole time I'll find a way to make time to work on this fic and you get the newest chapter shortly after Halloween. But either way, I'm not expecting myself to be able to post anything to this or my other fics during October (I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic in thinking I'll find a way), so sorry. 
> 
> Anyway, my current current /current/ estimation for the end of this chapter is like chapter 25 now. There's a lot of action coming up and those scenes don't tend to be wordy so I can fit more stuff into one chapter.

The rain droplets quietly ran down the walls of the police station, and Roadhog listened as they gently tapped against the other side. There weren’t any windows, but Roadhog could only imagine how heavy it was getting based on the sound. 

The prison cell he’d been put in was small, even by normal standards, and he’d resigned to staying in the center of the cold concrete floor in order to give himself enough elbow room. No one had dared get close to him after he’d gotten arrested, and as such the bullets stuck in his arm (and an extra one in his leg he’d gotten moving into the police station) were left to bleed on their own. The pain had already somewhat subsided, but it was still irritating that they were left untreated. He knew how bad an infected wound could look, even out of the radiation-filled Australia. 

_ This is ridiculous,  _ he thought to himself.  _ Complaining over a few measly bullet wounds.  _ Why, when he was fighting those ruined bastion units, they’d absolutely  _ filled  _ him with metal and it hadn’t slowed him down. Although, granted, he’d also been healed by Mercy at the time-

_Mercy._ His mind instantly flashed to that cold stare she’d given him just hours before (was it cold? It certainly wasn’t sympathetic). But if he thought about it, what could he possibly expect, once she learned that he’d threatened the town? He remembered the way she’d been jittery back in that ditch where they’d first landed, it was practically identical to the town. Perhaps she’d gotten better at hiding that fear as time went on. 

But then he thought to the way she’d give a snarky response in their conversations about her gear, where they were traveling, and his attachment to the pachimari plush. Surely someone who was afraid wouldn’t try talking back to him like that, would she? None of this felt right. 

Roadhog didn’t understand why he was so hung up on this. Shouldn’t  he have seen this coming, when he originally sought out for his weapons? What had caught him off guard?

Had he…

Had he really expected her to defend him back there, with all the officers? Or at the very least, give a response?

Roadhog growled, punching the concrete floor.  _ Fucking idiot. Is that really it? _

Motherfucker, he’d really thought that she’d side with him. After all, wouldn’t fighting omnics through that damned forest make her understand what Roadhog had been feeling?

Or did she not care, once he turned down her offer to join Overwatch?

And suddenly, it clicked in his mind.  _ Overwatch. Of course. That bitch is trying to back me into a corner, force me to make a choice between that damn organization or jail.  _

He felt anger well up in his throat. It all made an infuriating amount of sense. 

_ Well, I’m not falling for it,  _ he thought as he abruptly stood up, and began looking around the cell.  _ I need to figure out a way to get out of here, that doctor’s not going to trap me in a lose-lose choice.  _

He gripped the bars, gently shifting them to see how loose they were. They didn’t budge. He gripped some more and tested them as well. When they didn’t respond, he moved on to the next and repeated. 

He was close to giving up when he felt the last bar, the one closest to the wall, jerk a little under his force. He stared at it for a moment, thinking on what to do. It certainly wasn’t ideal, since being able to remove one of the middle bars would leave a bigger gap, but it was better than nothing. 

_ I just have to figure out how to use it best before- _

Roadhog’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he heard the door to the station open, and the sound of heels began clicking through the silent building. Just from that sound, Roadhog had been able to mentally prepare himself at the sight of Mercy coming into view in front of his cell. 

He grunted, sitting back down on the floor, and he saw Mercy straighten her posture a little.  _ Oh, trying to look a little professional now? Planning to question me, use that “alliance” to get on my good side? _

_ Well joke’s on you, I’m not telling you shit,  _ Mercy may have learned to read him a little better than most, but there were hard limits of how much she could decipher from silence. He just wouldn’t respond to anything she decided to say until she got bored or frustrated and left Roadhog alone.  

“Do you think you could explain how you made the town mad? Or at least, your reasoning why.” Her voice was curt and even. It disgusted Roadhog.

He snorted before he could stop himself. “ _ Now  _ you ask?”

“It was clearly not a negotiable situation back at that standoff, Roadhog,” she snapped. “I hope you understand.”

_ Sure I do,  _ Roadhog grunted at the tone. Her lips pressed into a thin line at his response, but her composure suddenly lost its footing as she let out a deep sigh and he saw the cold mask she’d put on abruptly melt away. 

“Look, Roadhog, I’m stuck here. I want to help you, but this is a  _ thin line  _ I’m treading. Could you at least explain to me what caused you to go robbing the hospital and threatening their staff in the middle of the night?”

Roadhog didn’t reply, simply turning himself a little so that his back was to her. Of  _ course  _ she just really wanted to help him, that’s why she came in here demanding answers.  _ And she says she’s stuck, too,  _ he huffed to himself.  _ What a joke. _

“Roadhog,” Mercy’s voice sounded impatient and frustrated. “The town doesn’t care what your answers to these questions are. In their minds, you’re already guilty and you’re going to jail the moment Overwatch arrives.”

Roadhog heard a couple footsteps behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Mercy tightly gripping the metal bars as she continued. “And believe it or not,  _ neither  _ of us particularly wants that outcome. I really think we can handle this peacefully, but I  _ need  _ to understand what happened first. From  _ all  _ sides.”

Roadhog paused for a moment, thinking on her request--no,  _ plea _ . 

_ Well,  _ he thought (lied) to himself.  _ There’s no harm in humoring her.  _

“Bastion,” he spoke up, tilting his head a little but still not turning around. 

“...Bastion? You mean as in the bastion units from the forest? Are they coming? You said you saw one earlier and-”

Roadhog shook his head. “The bird one.”

“The...the one that hangs around Torbjörn?”

Roadhog nodded with a small grunt of affirmation. 

“Were you really that scared that it’d attack you?”

Roadhog growled a little to himself, hating the sound of that word.  _ Scared.  _ “It’s an omnic,” he replied, as if it was obvious.

Mercy was quiet for a moment. “I see.”

The cell was quickly filled with silence, and Roadhog tried to listen to the rain droplets outside the building to ignore the pause. 

Eventually, he gave up, and looked over his shoulder to see what the hell Mercy was doing. She was staring down at a spot a few feet in front of her and was fiddling with her fingers, but the gaze was clearly much farther. She was thinking. Roadhog could only dread what she planned to say, but he had an idea. 

“There’s no doubt that Talon is still coming after us, Roadhog.”

He suppressed a groan. He knew where this was going. 

“I know you’re used to working on your own, and you don’t like authorities, but if you just at least  _ tried  _ cooperating with Overwatch--”

“ _ Forget it, _ ” Roadhog snarled. What, did she think he couldn’t handle himself against some simple Talon agents he and Junkrat had fought off before? That he and  _ Mercy  _ had fought off? Or was she afraid that  _ she  _ couldn’t handle  _ him _ ?

At least his suspicions as to why Mercy had let him get arrested were true. A part of him felt disappointed and twisted at the betrayal, but at least he had that slight satisfaction of knowing he was right. 

They didn’t balance out that much, so Roadhog tried to ignore them all for the most part. 

He heard Mercy hit the metal bars. “What other options are there for us, Roadhog?! Do you want to just end up in prison?”

_ No options for  _ us,  _ that’s cute.  _ He grunted. “Better than a suit.”

“Why do you hate authorities so much, Roadhog?” He glanced over his shoulder to see Mercy rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Wait, forget that, forget I asked that. But what do you _ like _ so much about being a criminal? What joy does it give you, going around blowing up buildings and collecting gold for no reason? What’s the  _ point  _ of it all?”

_ The freedom. The violence. The thrills.  _ But he didn’t respond with any of that. Instead, all he said was a simple sentence. 

“They deserve us.”

Mercy froze, unsure at how to respond to him, and Roadhog took the chance to hunch his back to make it clear he no longer wished to talk. Mercy’s endless questions were starting to bother him, and he no longer felt the need to humor her. He stayed quiet, letting it sink in for Mercy that he wasn’t going to give her anymore answers. 

After a few seconds, she got the message, and he heard her give a surprisingly uncharacteristic grunt of frustration before listening to her heels click away from his cell and eventually out of the building. He turned around again as the room was filled with silence, his gaze back on that loose bar that he’d found. 

_ She really thinks that I’ll believe that little fib that she’s just as torn about my “lack of choices” as I am,  _ he thought to himself with disgust.  _ Well, time to show her just how many choices I’ve _ really _ got.  _

 

\---

 

Satya held onto her custom-made grip tightly, feeling a little bit of pride in the design and how effective it was. She’d managed to be able to create something that’d vacuum-seal itself to D.va’s mech, and after a few minutes of constructing enough for everyone, the group was on the move again, attached to the mecha’s back like a brood of spiderlings.

Satya let herself hang off of the side a little, just so she could get at least an adequate view of what was up ahead. But combining the darkness brought on by storm clouds, the rain flying into her face, and the pink mecha still obscuring a large portion of her vision, she found her field of vision annoyingly small, even with the help of D.va’s flashlights . 

“D.va,” Satya yelled over the pouring rain. “How long until we reach the town?”

Somehow, D.va had managed to hear Satya over the noise. “We’re getting close, a little less than half an hour,” her voice came filtered through a speaker on the outside of her mech. 

She heard a whoop of excitement to her left, and Satya looked over to see Junkrat straightening himself on top of the mech, raising a fist in the air in triumph.

Satya frowned. “Junkrat, come back down, you’re going to get hit by something-”

“Don’t you worry bout me!” Junkrat shouted back. “You think a lil’ branch is gonna be the death of  _ me _ ? Naw, why  _ one  _ time me an’ Roadie were-”

Junkrat suddenly stopped himself, his face twisted into something of confusion as he stared ahead. Satya briefly noticed Amelie looking up at Junkrat in surprise and worry, which was understandable: there was rarely any moment where Junkrat willingly interrupted himself. 

Satya turned her head to try and follow his gaze, but was met with nothing but darkness past the headlights on D.va’s mecha. 

“What do you see, Junkrat?”

Junkrat squinted, shielding his eyes from the rain and pursing his lips. “Is...is that a bot?” He sounded uncharacteristically unsure of himself.

“Up ahead?” 

“Yeah.” 

“I can detect it now, too. We don’t have time to fight a bastion, though,” she heard D.va speak in a surprisingly commanding voice. “I’ll just try to run over it and hope that breaks something and prevents it from trying to shoot after us,” Satya’ heard the telltale sounds of a defense matrix activating itself and the mecha pushed on. 

Satya looked back ahead, and that was when, for the briefest of moments as they headed towards it, she saw the familiar glowing red line. In the next split second it was lit up by D.va’s flashlight, and Satya had a moment to think  _ It’s so mangled. How much of a threat is it? _

She had just finished wondering it when she saw the omnic’s head twitch erratically and suddenly her sight was filled with orange heat and she was flying through the air, her grip on the handle lurched away from her. 

She felt herself slam into the hard ground, and needed a moment to both reorient herself and catch her breath. It took her a second to briefly think  _ I’m not dead?  _ before her vision finally cleared itself. In front of her was a blazing fire, quickly being extinguished by the downpour.  _ Did...did that bastion just explode on us? _

Was it unstable? No, the explosion was too well timed with D.va’s mech colliding into it. It must have been the whiplash of that crash that had made Satya fly off, after all. 

_ No doubt the others have fallen off too,  _ she thought. She quickly stood up (and swayed a little as she felt her vision filled with spots for a couple seconds) and looked around, feeling confusion and panic begin to set into her chest as she realized she couldn’t see anybody else around. 

However, she could hear the sounds. 

Sounds of large footsteps, of creaking metal, of guns being fired. 

There were more bastions, and they were already fighting the others. 

“Amelie!” Satya cupped her mouth and called, beginning to run. “D.va! Junkrat! Can any of you hear me?”

And that was when she heard the footsteps behind her. Satya whirled around to see the shadow of another bastion stepping towards her, the fire lighting it up from behind. Its body was just as mangled as the first. 

Its head was twitching, too. 

Satya quickly began sprinting through the forest and away from the omnic, although it was a little difficult to gain any traction at first with the way the forest floor was covered in a thin sheet of water. She heard the heavy, metal footsteps behind her increase in their pace. 

She gritted her teeth, cursing a little to herself. She wouldn’t be able to outrun this omnic, would she? And the moment it got close enough... 

Satya shook the image out of her head, along with the rest of her thoughts, and she felt the world around her cool a little as her gaze quickly narrowed into a sharp focus. She glanced over her shoulder, looking at the twisted bastion running towards her. With a brief spin of her torso she faced the bastion, waved her hands, and turned back. In that brief moment, a small round turret appeared in her hands before she turned away from it.

It was the one she’d been working on with Junkrat as they travelled. They’d spent hours discussing and bouncing ideas off of each other, adding the agreed features to the turret when they could. 

Their latest addition was a suggestion of Junkrat, and while it had taken a bit of time to accomplish, Satya was extremely satisfied with the result. 

The small turret stayed motionless in space for a moment as it constructed itself, before slowly launching itself forward and towards the running bastion. 

The turret landed on the bastion and immediately stuck on. A blue circle lit up on it, the only warning given just before the bastion suddenly burst into a large and round plume of blue and orange flame, which soon all changed to orange in a way that made it seem like the blue fire had been consumed and assimilated. 

Satya ran a little farther before she felt satisfied and let herself stop, making sure that she didn’t hear any more of those exploding bastions nearby. She panted a little, leaning on her knees, but feeling a bit of a thrill run through her at the thought that the turret had actually  _ worked.  _ She hadn’t had a chance to test it out before, and the usage of the experimental tech had been a gamble. 

_ A gamble that worked. _ Satya smiled to herself, pride running through her. 

“Hey! Heyyyy!” a whispered voice made Satya jump a little, and she glanced over to see a pair of bright yellow eyes staring at her in the darkness. 

Satya furrowed her eyebrows. “Junkrat!”

Junkrat emerged from the darkness with a toothy grin. He had a bit of blood dripping off the side of his head. 

“How’d you find me?”

Junkrat smiled. “You think I couldn’t recognize our hard work? That blue fire was practically a beacon!”

_ That brings up a good point, _ Satya thought.  _ The explosion likely drew a lot of attention. Maybe we’ll need to move a little farther to prevent running into anything.  _

“Are you all right?” Satya whispered and pointed at Junkrat’s head, making sure to keep her voice low. . 

“What, this?” Junkrat tapped the bloodstain with his dirty fingers, and Satya suppressed the urge to wince. “It’s nothing! Where’re your other friends?”

Satya frowned. “I haven’t seen anyone else but you. That, and the bastions.”

Junkrat gave a growl at the mention of the omnics. “Ergh, those bots have been a problem! At least they make nice explosions when they die.”

Satya looked around, hoping to get a good look at their surroundings, but without D.va’s headlights she could barely see anything further than ten feet around them. She gave a small noise of frustration. 

“D.va’s the one with the coordinates and the map in her mecha. Without her, we have no hope of making it to the town with this darkness and chaos.”

She heard Junkrat give an “ah” of affirmation. “Well,  _ I  _ say we bust through those bots-”

“Hold on,” Satya interrupted. She jerked her head up, straining her ears. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Junkrat raised an eyebrow. 

Satya chewed on her cheek. “I...hear voices. It sounds like someone is having a conversation. Or at least, someone is talking to themself.”

“You recognize them?”

Satya furrowed her eyebrows. She couldn’t understand what the voices was saying, but they certainly sounded female. 

“I think it might be the others, or at least one of them.”

“Really?”

Satya jerked her head. “Let’s go and meet up with her.”

 

\---

 

The knock on Angela’s door jolted her out of her work. She carefully put down the small piece of tech that she’d been carefully trying to bend back into proper shape, and called over.

“What is it?”

“Um, Doctor Ziegler?” a female voice that Angela didn’t recognize came from the other side, muffled and nervous; it was definitely one of the staff of the hospital. “It’s Roadhog. He...got out.”

Angela felt herself freeze, her mind seemingly hesitating on what it could say next. She quietly made her way to the door and opened it to see a young woman that couldn’t be twenty, her arms nervously crossed in front of her chest. “What.” Angela asked, keeping her voice stern. 

“The cell’s broken, and...Roadhog isn’t anywhere.”

“Show me.”

The two of them quickly made their way to the police station, and sure enough the scene was exactly the way the girl had said: one of the bars had been pulled out, and both it and the others near it were bent out of shape. Angela observed the area, making sure she didn’t show any outward emotion. Everyone around her was clearly scared, now that they didn’t even  _ know  _ where the dangerous criminal was, and if they saw the fear that Angela felt boiling in her stomach they’d only be more alarmed. 

Especially if they realized that feeling of fear wasn’t for them. It was for Roadhog. 

_ This was your responsibility, and you messed it all up,  _ voices began to converse in her mind.  _ What could you have said that could change Roadhog’s mind?  _

_ Nothing,  _ another spoke up.  _ You heard him yourself. He just wants to hurt those around him, he must blame the rest of the world for what happened to Australia. To him and Junkrat.  _

_ That’s right, he was part of the rebellion that blew up the omnium. No wonder he feels so bitter. How could I have possibly expected him to agree to this? _

_ He doesn’t trust us,  _ she thought.  _ He doesn’t trust authorities, he doesn’t trust Overwatch. And why would he, considering what they’ve given him? Why, he  _ _ didn’t _ _ doesn’t trust me, that’s why he asked me to remove the bookmark- _

Angela stiffened, her eyes widening, and the surrounding police officers took note of the behavior. “Ma’am?” one of them asked. “Are you alright?”

Angela blinked, snapping herself out of shock, and looked at the officer as she desperately tried to wipe the agitated expression. “I’m fine, this whole scenario is just...a little frightening.”

The officer nodded sagely. “We understand.”

Angela put a hand on her head, her thoughts spinning around in her mind so quickly she felt they’d burst through the sides of her skull. “I’m going to go back to the hospital and lay low and see if I can notify the approaching extraction team. We’ll need to be careful, who  _ knows _ where Roadhog is.”

And with that, she quickly turned around and ran out of the station and made her way back to the hospital. 

She slammed the door to her room open and sprinted across to her bed, where she’d placed her halo on the pillow. She tried to grab it as fast as she could while still being a little careful of the tech, and placed it on her head. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed the button on the side. The device beeped obediently, and in that moment numbers, names, and lines drifted in her vision. She whirled her head around, and soon enough, she found it: a yellow outline wrapped around a round shape walking in the distance. 

_ He’s leaving,  _ her mind momentarily observed before she moved to the closet with the rest of her Valkyrie armor and putting it on. She absentmindedly grabbed her empty staff off of the desk before she left: who knew how many bastions were still out there, and she didn’t have time to try and ask an officer for a gun. 

They’d probably want to accompany her as a bodyguard anyway, and she couldn’t have that. 

After all, her current plan was a bit unorthodox. 

Angela stepped out of the large hospital feeling and felt the cold and heavy rain crash into her face. Her eyes darted back to where she could see the outline of Roadhog’s back, and with confident strides she moved through the town. She avoided running to try and prevent anyone from noticing, but the moment she reached the edge of the forest she broke into a sprint. 

She was barely thinking of what she was planning to say. The only thought that was in her mind repeated itself ad nauseam:  _ I can’t let this happen. There’s got to be a better way. I  _ know  _ there’s a better way.  _

_ And I’m going to make it happen, no matter what.  _


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I believe this is the longest chapter of the story, so far! Hope you enjoy, I'll try and get back on my usual routine from here

Amelie pulled down on the trigger of her sniper rifle, feeling the gun jerk back in her arms and seeing the bastion’s head in front of her erupt into flames. She patted the top of the mech she was sitting on. “That seems to be all the bastions I can see. Are you detecting any more nearby? This rain is impossible to see through,” she grumbled the last part. 

“You know I can see only marginally better than you, right? That stupid explosion from before messed up my light.” Hana responded, looking around with her defense matrix up. “But I can’t see any other bastions. I can’t find Symmetra or Junkrat either, though.”

Amelie groaned to herself, lifting a hand to protect her face from the droplets of water cutting into her cheeks. “This is bad. We don’t know how many of those omnics are out there. Did you see what that first one did?”

“How could I  _ not _ ?” Amelie glanced down at Hana’s snarky tone to see the scorch marks on the front of her mech, the cracks in the windshield, and the stump where her right shotgun had once been. “Most of the armor on my mech’s been cracked through by that thing!”

“What the hell is with that idiot Sombra?” Amelie muttered to herself. “Experimenting with faulty omnics like this. How can she be so reckless?”

_ I haven’t heard any other explosions since the first one. Does that mean that Symmetra and Junkrat are safe? _

She hoped so. 

“Hey, Amelie, do you hear that?”

Amelie glanced down at the mech again, adjusting the grip she had on her grappling hook. “Hear what?”

“Listen!”

Amelie remained quiet, focusing her hearing, desperately trying to hear what Hana was talking about. At first, it was nothing but the pounding of rain that filled her eardrums, but as she listened closer, the thundering waves of water faded away, and in the ensuing silence, Amelie heard it.

Small, light feet crunching down on twigs and dead leaves. Lots of them, and they were getting louder. 

“Footsteps?” Amelie murmured, keeping her voice low and pressing herself close to Hana’s mech in hopes she could still hear her voice that way.

Hana didn’t reply, simply lifting her remaining shotgun and preparing for a fight. Amelie felt herself stiffen too as she heard the familiar metal footsteps of a bastion. 

_ Sombra!  _ The alarms in Amelie’s head rung out, and she lifted her gun, her finger already on the trigger finger. 

But as the branches before them were pushed aside, what was revealed to the two of them wasn’t a crowd of hostile Talon agents. Amelie’s mouth dropped open. 

“Torbjorn?”

The dwarf in question was leading a group of people in officer’s uniforms, a strange bastion covered in moss and grass at his side. His eyes widened at the two of them, but he quickly erased the expression. “Well if it isn’t the stars of the show. Poor timing, I’d say,” his eyes glanced over to see the disrepair Hana’s mech was in, worry drifted over his features. “What happened to you two?”

“Talon agents have hacked into the old bastions nearby, making them explode when they get near us!” Hana quickly began to explain. “One of them separated us from Symmetra and Junkrat! We’re trying to find them.”

“Really? Mercy told us that Talon was messing with them, but she didn’t mention any exploding ones.”

Amelie frowned, looking at the situation before her and realizing what was off. “Why are you out here, too? Were you planning to greet us? Attack the bastions?”  _ And what was that you said about timing? _

Torbjorn growled, his face darkening. “That stupid junker in our town broke out of his prison about a half hour ago and ran into the forest. Mercy’s missing, too.”

“What?!” Torbjorn and the officers flinched in surprise from Amelie’s sudden shout. “You mean he’s taken her hostage?! Why didn’t you stop this?!”

“Because we don’t think that’s the case!” Torbjorn had quickly gotten his bearings and begun yelling back. “She vanished  _ after  _ she received the news of Roadhog’s disappearance! If anything, she  _ followed _ him into the forest, rather than getting taken away!”

Amelie was taken aback by the comment. Her head began whirling around, to see if there was possibly a shadow moving in the forest. “Do you know where they’re heading?”

“No clue. Who knew someone so big could leave so little a trail?”

Amelie groaned, running her fingers through her hair in frustration. “Damn it, how long had he been gone by the time you got this search party? Half an hour right? Then he can’t have gotten far in this dark, right?”

“It’s more than that,” Hana suddenly broke into the conversation, her voice grim. “They might’ve been delayed by those bastions more than anything else.”

“Those bastions…” Amelie felt her body chill in fear. “The bastions! Angela and Satya are out in that forest, with all those bastions, and those two  _ criminals  _ too!”

She saw the other officers begin to get nervous as everyone realized what was going on, and how much danger their friends were in. Amelie stood up on the mech, standing over the rest of the group, and with as much authority as she could muster, held up her chest and spoke down to them. 

“We need to find them,  _ now.  _ We’re going to split up, but we need to figure out a signal to send out if we find one of them.”

The others nodded, and the groups quickly converged to begin discussing plans to find them. Amlie found it hard to focus, as her mind was filled with images of a bloody meathook, bursts of cobalt flames, and the sight of Satya and Angela, cold on the forest floor. 

Angela’s pistol felt even heavier on Amelie’s waist than normal, and she desperately hoped that she’d be able to return it to its original owner. 

 

—-

 

It was strange, using the halo as a navigational tool in this heavy darkness. Angela was able to track Roadhog down from a mile away with the bright yellow outline appearing on her display, but she had to keep her arms spread out in front of her to make sure she didn’t run into any nearby trees. Luckily, Roadhog seemed to have also been slowed down by the storm, and she was making good progress to catch up to him. He’d stop every now and then to look around, and Angela couldn’t help but wonder if there were bastions wandering nearby that he was hearing. 

She hoped not, both for her sake and everyone else’s. 

Roadhog’s silhouette was getting very close now.  _ I suppose it’s now or never to make a move now,  _ she thought to herself. She lifted her hands, but stopped, hesitating for a moment. Feeling anger at her sudden cold feet, she tightened her shoulders and cupped her mouth. “Roadhog!”

The silhouette up ahead froze, and she saw the distinct movement of someone turning around. She yelled again. “Roadhog! It’s me!”

She paused, waiting to see the junker’s reaction. After a couple of seconds it was clear he was waiting for her to approach, and she stepped through the brush until the orange outline vanished and she found herself face-to-face with all eight feet of the criminal himself, staring down at her. Angela lifted her hands, showing she didn’t have any weapons in them. She knew he didn’t have any weapons either, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t very easily punt her all the way back to the village. 

“I don’t mean you any harm, and,” she took a deep breath, which gave her a moment to think  _ am I really doing this?  _ And  _ yes. _ “I’m not here to capture you, either. I just want to talk.”

Roadhog snorted in a sarcastic and disbelieving way that Angela had found herself hearing far too often in the past couple of days. She glared up at him, not showing aggression suddenly becoming less of a priority. “I  _ mean  _ it, Roadhog. Why won’t you just trust me?”

Roadhog stared at her for a moment and Angela waited with baited breath for his response, when he suddenly turned away and began walking away. 

“Hey, wait-!” Angela began moving after him. “Do you just refuse to answer me now? Why did you suddenly want to treat me like everybody else?!”

“Because you’re  _ with  _ them,” Roadhog’s snarl had so much venom in it that Angela was taken aback, not mentioning the fact that she hadn’t expected to push through his silence this quickly. “ _ That’s  _ why you’re grouped with them.”

“With them-what do you mean by that?” Angela did the unthinkable, and reached out a hand to grab him by his arm to try and stop. She felt her heart stop when she realized what she’d done, but she was even more shocked when Roadhog actually  _ stopped  _ and turned back to her, and if his posture was saying anything, he was just as surprised as Angela. 

Angela quickly regained her composure, though. “When did you start ‘grouping’ me with ‘them?’ Ever since we arrived in town you’ve been acting crazy, and when it seems you need to the  _ most,  _ you suddenly stop talking with me!”

Roadhog gave her a sidelong glance. “What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t act dumb with me!” Angela angrily pointed a finger at him. “You’ve been withholding information from me from the very beginning, like how you scared the hospital staff before I woke up! And they just kept getting worse and worse, why wouldn't you tell me how nervous you were about the bastion? And  _ stealing?  _ Are you  _ crazy?” _

“How did you know about the bastion?” Roadhog’s tone sounded accusing. 

Angela huffed a little. “Remember that time it broke into your room? I could see how nervous you were about it, even if you tried to hide it, but,” she looked down at the ground, her body hunched and her lungs a little winded from the angry yelling. “I thought, that if there really was a problem, a problem that would make you go and  _ attack _ someone from the hospital, you’d  _ tell  _ me about it!”

“I didn’t attack him!” Roadhog shot back, his voice surprisingly defensive. Angela flinched a little by his tone of voice, but much to her surprise, she didn’t move that much. 

“I  _ didn’t  _ attack him,” Roadhog repeated, his volume significantly lower. “I took my weapons, scared him to keep quiet, that’s  _ it. _ ”

“Still, Roadhog,” Angela made her voice a lot softer, after seeing how upset (and even  _ hurt _ ) he’d gotten at the way she’d accused him. “You can’t just believe that was okay. We could both see how on edge everyone in that town was, why would you just... _ kick  _ the hornet’s nest like that?”

Roadhog didn’t respond immediately, simply looking away with his mask. The droplets of rain scattered across the leather of it, and in that moment of silence Angela thought at how little she cared about the cold water running down and through her scalp. 

“I’m stuck in a town filled with people who’d rather have me dead, waiting for Overwatch to come and arrest me,” he looked back at her. “I needed to do  _ something  _ for myself.”

Angela’s eyes widened as she began to realize what this whole situation must’ve looked like from Roadhog’s perspective.  _ He thought he had his back against a wall, but that still doesn’t explain… _

Angela’s hands tightened into fists, and suddenly, before she could stop herself, she’d launched at Roadhog and punched him in the stomach. He didn’t flinch from the force of the impact as Angela’s punch bounced back, but he was startled enough to lash out an arm to push her away. It was a surprisingly gentle push though, considering his hand could break all of Angela’s ribs in half—it’d only made her stumble a little. 

She glared at Roadhog with daggers in her eyes. “You’re an  _ idiot! _ ” she yelled, wanting to climb over Roadhog’s hand to get another punch in. “Did you really think you were that trapped? I was  _ giving you an out, dammit,  _ did you think I was lying to you when I said I wanted you to join Overwatch?!”

“But-that was the  _ only option!”  _ Roadhog objected, still put off guard by Angela’s sudden angry fit. “Why wouldn’t I think you’d given me only one out on  _ purpose _ —“

“If I had better ideas, did you really think I wouldn’t have offered them to you?!” Angela practically screamed, getting tired of Roadhog’s arguments. Here she was, standing in the freezing rain being sought out by crazy robots and angry police officers for Roadhog’s sake and here he was saying that he had no  _ choice _ ? “In case you forgot, you’re a  _ world renown criminal with a several million bounty on your head! _ And, and yet, I was still willing to help you!”

“And why is that?!”

“You’re my friend, you  _ idiot!”  _ Angela screamed, and she could see his eyes widen beneath his goggles. “You saved my life  _ who knows  _ how many times in that stupid forest, and, and I actually  _ enjoyed  _ talking with you!”

Roadhog still seemed to be frozen in shock, and Angela continued on her rant. “I’m trying to help you in any way I can, despite what  _ everyone else  _ wants, and yet you have the  _ gall  _ to just make everything worse and act like  _ there was no other way _ ?! No, there  _ was,  _ you just decided to  _ push  _ yourself into that corner, just to make it all a little easier for yourself, and when  _ that  _ wasn’t enough, you decided to try and push yourself even further with those weapons! Come to think of it, you’re  _ always _ like this! You keep talking like there’s no other options, how the world has no hope of changing, so you have no choice but to be so  _ violent _ , but you know what? That’s what everyone kept telling me when Amelie came to me, asking for help, saying that it was impossible and that there was no way for her to change. 

“And you know what happened? I gave her a goddamn _chance,_ Roadhog, and she passed with _flying colors._ She’s now a part of Overwatch like everyone else, and she’s out her somewhere looking for the both of us. And, and I’m trying to give _you_ that second chance too, Roadhog, I know you can be better,  just like with Amelie, and Satya, and Genji, and, and _Overwatch_ -“ Angela felt her voice crack a little as her energy began dwindling and her anger turned into frustrated desperation.

“But I was stupid, thinking that was all,” she saw Roadhog stiffen. “I gave you that second chance, without even realizing that  _ you  _ needed to do the same. Roadhog, you, you need to give  _ us  _ a chance, you need to give the  _ world  _ a chance. I know you don’t want to, with what happened with the omnium, and Australia, but...this crime spree, this stealing, this cruelty, what does it even  _ accomplish  _ at this point? Aren’t you tired?”

Angela took a small step forward, and Roadhog took a surprisingly large step back. It was the first time to see him this shaken up, but Angela kept pushing. 

“Roadhog, look...I, I promise that I’m going to try and make this better, but if you don’t try and work with me even a little, then it’ll all just go back to normal, back to how it was before. You’ll run off and keep committing atrocities, and we’ll chase after you. Is that what you want?”

Roadhog leaned away, turning his head in a clear motion of thinking. The rain and thunder pounded around them, and Angela found herself holding her breath as a part of her realized everything that she’d just done and said. 

_ Did I really punch Roadhog? And he didn’t even  _ hurt  _ me from it…  _ She looked up at him.  _ Come to think of it, how long has it been since I felt genuinely worried that he’d try anything? _

Roadhog still wasn’t talking, and Angela began debating in her head as to whether she should say something to prod for an answer, but considering her long speech she concluded that she’d been brash enough for the day. When speaking with Roadhog, patience was the best tool, she knew. 

Roadhog’s head suddenly snapped up, and Angela wondered for a beat if she’d accidentally said something out loud before she realized he was looking off to the side. And that was when she heard it too, almost completely obscured by the rainfall and thunder: something was rustling, stepping through the trees and towards them. 

Angela grabbed the staff attached to her back and held it up, ready to swing. Roadhog crouched lower to the ground, almost looking as if he was about to tackle whatever showed its face. The footsteps sounded uneven, and at that moment Angela realized there was more than one, and she felt her heart sink as she thought of the organized attack Sombra had prepared before.  _ Had she been preparing something while we were talking? _

Her grip on her staff tightened as she saw a shadow emerge through the trees, and promptly dropped the caduceus staff with a wide open mouth as the shadow split and she recognized the two of them as Satya and Junkrat. 

The others seemed just as shocked to see each other. 

Angela glanced over at Satya, and saw her gaze focused squarely on Angela with a mixture of disbelief and joy. “Saty…?” Angela murmured, not sure if Satya had heard it.

Satya didn’t say anything, simply running to her and wrapping her arms tightly around Angela, and if she listened closely she could almost hear dry sobs. 

“Angie, you’re okay, you’re really okay...” Angela heard Satya whispering over and over into her ear, and Angela slowly returned the head. 

“Yes, it’s me, Saty. I’m really okay, too…” she comforted, her voice equally quiet. 

Suddenly, Satya pulled back from the hug, grasping the sides of Angela’s jaws with her soft fingers, and pulled Angela into a kiss. She welcomed it wholeheartedly, feeling her arms almost instinctively wrap around Satya’s back affectionately, almost melting in the warmth of her body after spending so long in the rain. 

After a few seconds of a kiss that Angela had missed and  _ desperately  _ needed, Satya pulled herself back with a short breath of happiness, putting her arms around Angela’s neck and hugging her tightly again, her cheek rubbing up against Angela’s as she laughed a little to herself. 

“I’m...I’m just so happy, Angie! I can’t believe it, you’re really, truly okay! Oh, we need to find Ame, so she can see you too…”

“Wait,” Angela pulled away from the hug a little to look Satya in the eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

Satya’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “Talon’s been hacking into the bastions here, and some of them have been found to _explode_ ,” Angela’s eyes widened at that. “We got caught by one and separated from Amelie and D.va in the chaos. Junkrat and I heard voices over here, and came to see if it was the others.”

Angela blinked. “That’s right, you’re with  _ Junkrat.” I don’t recall seeing him.  _

She looked over to Roadhog, and found herself giving out a startled laugh at the sight of Junkrat tightly clinging upside down to the larger junker’s arm, who was holding it up as if he was carrying something nasty.

“Oh, Roadie, it’s so good to see you!” Junkrat grinned, still hanging upside down, and Roadhog simply stared at him, tilting his head. 

“You’re in the rain.”

“Oh, you haven’t seen nothing! That purple-not-purple bitch tossed me in a fuckin’  _ lake! _ And you know something cool?”

Roadhog grunted, amusement clearly in his voice, prompting Junkrat to continue. He threw up his arms, which made him swing backwards as only his legs kept him attached to Roadhog’s arm, although he didn’t seem all too worried about it. “They ain’t got acid rain here! Or acid lakes! Or puddles! And you know what? It’s like this practically  _ everywhere in the world!  _ Can you believe it!”

Junkrat continued rambling and raving to Roadhog, and Angela quirked a smile at the scene before turning back to Satya. “Roadhog and I met with some of Talon’s bastions, but none that ever tried  _ exploding  _ on us. How dangerous are they?”

Satya grimaced. “It seems as if they’re using the bastion’s core to make the explosions a lot more...volatile, so they’re  _ very  _ dangerous. Junkrat and I developed a couple of ways of fighting them off, but only if we can see them from a distance, and with this rain I’m not sure we can do that.”

Angela frowned, looking back at the two junkers. “Now that I look, I see that Junkrat’s using a bit of your handiwork there. I’m guessing there’s a story behind that?”

“Just as much as there’s a story behind you traveling in the woods with  _ Roadhog  _ of all people,” Satya smiled, and Angela felt the urge to kiss her again. 

“ _ Speaking  _ of which,” a shrill voice cut into the conversation, and the two of them looked to see Junkrat still swinging on Roadhog’s arm by his legs, his hand loosely brushing against the mud on the forest floor. “Why the hell are you two out here, anyway? That pink chick said you’d be stuck in that stupid town.”

Angela glanced over at Roadhog, whose gaze was irritatingly unreadable at that particular moment, and after a moment of thought, sighed. “...Roadhog didn’t want to face Overwatch, and he tried to run away from the town. I decided to follow him.”

She glanced at Roadhog again, and to her relief he didn’t seem upset that she’d spoken the truth. She took it as a good sign. Junkrat’s eyes were wide as Angela saw the couple of gears within his head quickly turning, and she looked back at Satya, unsure of the kind of reaction she’d give. 

Satya’s eyes didn’t hold any judgement in them, simply looking over Angela’s face in a way that seemed as if she was trying to read her. Her expression was curious and thoughtful, before it softened into a sad smile. “You seem to trust him, Angie,” she murmured, making sure her voice couldn’t be heard by the other two. “I don’t know what happened in this past week between you two, but are you sure we’ll be safe?”

Angela furrowed her eyebrows, and nodded slightly. 

Satya gave a faint smile. “Alright. I know you have a good sense of judgement, and if you think this junker’s trustworthy, then I’ll go along with it. 

Angela stared at her girlfriend, dumbfounded, before her face split into a bright grin and she leaned in and gave Satya another kiss. “You’re amazing. You know that?”

Satya only grinned back at the compliment. 

“Roadie, you’ve been wanting to escape too?!”

Junkrat’s excited voice made Angela and Satya separate to look back at him. He’d somehow managed to climb up Roadhog’s arm with only one arm and was now resting on the large junker’s shoulder. “Well why didn’t you just say so when we first got here?!”

Junkrat froze, looking and realizing that Angela and Satya were watching, before leaning towards Roadhog’s ear with a cupped around his mouth. 

“That angel lady doesn’t have a gun,” Junkrat spoke in the same volume as before, just with a more whisper-y voice. “And there's almost no one out here! This is our chance, Roadhog! We can get out of here!”

Angela’s eyes widened as Junkrat quickly jumped off of Roadhog’s shoulder, grabbed his arm, and began to pull him in the opposite direction. She prepared to move to stop them, when something suddenly caught her eye. 

Satya didn’t notice it though, and she stepped forward angrily. “Hey, what are you doing-!”

Angela cut her off, grabbing her by the crook of her elbow, and Satya looked back at her, confused. Angela simply pointed back at Roadhog. 

Junkrat was pulling and prying on his arm, and he wasn’t budging from his spot, simply looking down at the junker with an air of patience in his posture. Junkrat gave an angry grunt, struggling to properly pull with the mud slipping out from under his feet, and he gave a small squawk as his legs slid out from under him and he landed on the ground with a wet  _ splat.  _

Junkrat quickly scrambled back up to his feet, glaring up at Roadhog. “ _ Roadie!  _ What’s wrong with you? Did you go deaf? We. Can. Escape!” Junkrat accentuated the last three words with exaggerated motions that seemed to be an attempt to convey a similar idea without words.  _ Does he genuinely think Roadhog is deaf? _

Roadhog didn’t give a visible reaction to Junkrat’s antics, his head slowly turning to look at Angela. She felt herself stiffen a little under the gaze, and she saw something flash in the eyes behind the goggles before he looked down at Junkrat, grabbing him by his torso and lifting him into the air. 

“Wha-hey! What are you doing?!” Junkrat protested, flailing his arms about in a futile attempt to get free. He grunted and whined as he tried prying Roadhog’s fingers open, before finally resorting to trying to bite at his hand and wrist. Roadhog seemed unamused by it all. 

“Junkrat,” Roadhog’s gruff voice had a surprisingly patient yet assertive tone that made the junker stop mid-bite and stare at him with those bright yellow eyes. “Has Overwatch made an offer to you?”

Angela’s eyes widened, and Junkrat pried his teeth out of Roadhog’s thumb to think. “Um...probably? I agreed to something to come looking for you, I think. Suits like to work with that an’ all, all those strings attached,” he shrugged. 

Roadhog gave a grunt that seemed to be a chuckle. “Did you agree?” 

“Um…” Junkrat chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Probably?”

“That’s a yes,” Roadhog sighed, placing Junkrat back on the ground.

Junkrat looked up at him, confused. “Alright, that’s a yes, I guess. Where are you trying to go with all this?”

“I agreed to a similar deal, about joining Overwatch.” Angela felt her brain stop as Roadhog said that last part, and she stared at him with wide eyes. She saw him turn his head a little towards her to acknowledge her reaction, and give a slight nod. 

He turned back at the sound of Junkrat’s whines. “You made a deal with them  _ too _ ?”

“That’s right. We need to keep it.”

“But why should we?!” Junkrat protested, waving his arm. “Suits break their deals all the time, why not just break this one?! Remember the last time you suggested we go legit?”

”This deal won’t be broken.”

“What makes you think that?! They’re Suits, it’s what they do!”

“They’re not Suits. They’ll be better.”

“I-I, we-“ Junkrat’s speech become more jittery as he struggled to keep yelling and arguing with Roadhog’s calm voice, which seemed to almost be an immovable wall preventing any debate from bleeding through. After a few moments of Junkrat desperately staring up at Roadhog like a child begging for a new toy, his face morphed into a pout, and he sat down in the mud with his legs and arms crossed. 

“Fine. But if this all goes tits up, I’m punching you in the fuckin’ nuts.”

Roadhog gave a chuckle at that, and looked back at Angela again. She couldn’t think of anything to say, and just responded with a bright smile and a thumbs up, immediately realizing how dumb she looked the moment she did so. Roadhog must’ve seen the regret on her face, as he gave a shrug to show how much he cared. 

Angela blinked as she felt Satya’s warmth close in on her side again. “I’m...not entirely sure what happened there, but I’ll say right now that I’m glad I trusted you.”

Angela looked back at her, that dumb smile back on her face. “Do you really think I’d want to disappoint you?”

“What with all of your all-nighters and appalling lack of personal care, sometimes I’d say you do.”

“Hey!” Angela laughed, moving further into the hug. Satya began laughing with her, and she reciprocated the embrace. 

“Awww, what a touching moment~”

All the warmth in the air was immediately killed as that sickly sweet voice sounded over the rain. Angela immediately pushed herself away from Satya to face the direction the voice had come from, and she saw Junkrat jump onto his feet in the corner of her eye. 

As soon as her gaze landed on the source of the voice, the air before her shimmered, and an annoyingly familiar purple outfit revealed itself, along with a smug grin. “Sorry. Was I interrupting something?”

“You just don’t give up, do you Sombra?” Angela growled. 

Sombra sighed. “As much as I’d like to argue with you Ziegler, this rain is really annoying me and I’d like to get this over with.” 

With a casual wave of her clawed hand, dozens of red lights lit up from the darkness around them, and Angela picked up her staff to get into her battle stance. “This again? You know the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over again and expecting new results, don’t you?”

Sombra gave an exaggerated hum, stroking her chin with her hand. “Hmm, you’ve got a point there, Doctor! That  _ would  _ be crazy!”

She flashed a toothy grin, and Angela felt her heart sink as she saw two familiar dark clouds emerge from either side of Sombra, and in an instant Reaper and Moira were standing by her, materialized out of thin air. 

Sombra’s smile had somehow gotten even wider. “Is this a good enough change?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point, I'm positive there's only two more chapters left to go with this! I'm so excited, I never expected this story to be this long or to get this popular.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there should only be one chapter left before this is all over, and honstly it's kinda like an epilogue. I hope this ending wasn't too rushed for yall, if there's an issue post it in the comments! I write fanfiction to improve and I crave that criticism.

Roadhog didn’t have a moment to prepare as the Talon agents and ruined omnics dove towards them. However, they barely moved an inch before the world in front of Roadhog burst into azure flames, and everyone quickly jumped back to avoid it. Roadhog blinked, looking back to see Symmetra quickly building another round device with her prosthetic arm. “We must spread out, I don’t want to risk these explosions hurting any of you!” She called out, sending out the machine towards one of the bastions and shielding her eyes from the light of the following explosion. 

Making the connections in his head, Roadhog quickly nodded and began trying to move away from the center, punching the nearest bastion as he did so. Another explosion sounded out from behind him, and he couldn’t help but feel amused at how much it reminded him of fighting alongside Junkrat. Seemed as if the idiot was spreading his pyrotechnic ways to the goodie two shoes of Overwatch. 

He felt even less regret at actually agreeing to Mercy’s deal to join them. 

 

\---

 

Satya was constructing the explosive turrets as fast as she could. She was also adding some standard turrets to nearby trees, although they weren’t nearly as effective at clearing out the clusters of omnics closing in on them. 

Satya squinted her eyes at the glare of the fire erupting in front of her. She lifted her arm to create another turret, not able to hear the digital tapping until the hologram rising from her palm flickered out of sight. 

Satya whirled around to see the grim smirk on Sombra, the purple screen hovering in front of her palm. 

She expected Sombra to move on her now that Satya’s mechanics were disabled, but the hacker only seemed to want to stand there with the same confident expression. The reason soon became clear as Satya heard the sounds of breaking branches, and turned back around to see a bastion shifting into its turret form. The gun’s barrel slowly began speeding up, showing no signs of jamming, and Satya’s eyes widened as she desperately tried to formulate a plan in that brief moment before the first shot. 

She heard the first bullet send itself out, and Satya closed her eyes and lifted her arms over her face. A burning pain flared up in her thigh and she vaguely heard a loud, crashing noise fill her ears, followed by the sounds of a silent whirring. 

Satya slowly opened her eyes, only to be met with the sight of what looked like a dead log pinning a crumpled bastion to the forest floor. 

She glanced over, and saw Roadhog standing near her, giving a slight nod to the damage he’d done. Satya blinked, staring at him, and Roadhog tilted his head at her. 

He looked down. “You’re wounded.”

Satya followed his gaze, and sure enough there was a small red hole embedded in her leg, blood already dripping down her shin. Satya clicked her tongue, lowering her prosthetic arm and creating a small plug for the wound (it seemed Sombra’s disabling had worn off already). She’d need to remove the bullet later, but at the very least she wouldn’t be bleeding in the middle of battle. 

Satya glanced back up at Roadhog, who was looking at the hard light technology with what she could only assume was curiosity. “Why?”

Roadhog jerked his head back up to look at Satya, and in the light of the surrounding battle she could see his eyebrow was quirked. “You hate Overwatch. Why would you help me like that?”

Roadhog gave something that was a mix of a sigh and a groan, as if what Satya was asking was stupid. “You’re Mercy’s friend.”

Satya frowned at the response. She supposed she could call herself more than just Angela’s “friend,” but considering Roadhog had seen them kissing just minutes earlier he likely already knew that. Nonetheless, his point was clear. 

A small smile spread across Satya’s face. “Thank you,” she murmured, the gratitude almost completely drowned out by the surrounding noises of rain and battle. 

Roadhog gave a curt nod, and turned away to help the others. The movement made Satya snap herself out of the moment, and turned back to see the bastion underneath the tree, its core visible from inside the head. 

Smiling a little to herself, Satya reached down and carefully extracted the core. 

_ I wonder how much I can do with an energy source like this? _ ’

 

\---

 

Roadhog’s hand wrapped around what he assumed was a neck of a nearby bastion--he’d noticed it was in less disrepair than the others, and knew that it wasn’t one of the explosive ones--crushing the metal in his palm, and seeing the core inside the head peak through the bends in the metal. He grabbed it with his other hand, dropping it at his feet and crushing the thing underneath his rubber boot. 

Another bastion entered his sight, this one more mangled and sprinting towards him. He tossed the limp bastion corpse in his hand at the oncoming omnic, and the two came together in a burst of fire. Roadhog gave a grunt of satisfaction at the display. 

His thoughts were cut off as he felt the entirety of his back suddenly in flare up in pain, and turned around to see the bone white mask of Reaper, one of his shotguns raised. Another shot rang out, and Roadhog quickly lifted an arm to shield his face, the back of his arm taking the majority of the bullets. He growled a little, pushing the pain from the two shots to the back of his mind, and reached forward to grab the bastard. He’d hoped to grab the stupid neck on the thing and be able to wring it to his heart’s content, but the moment his hand landed on the dark cloak it gave out from under him, turning into smoke and slipping through his fingers. 

The wraith appeared behind Roadhog again, letting loose two more shots into Roadhog’s back, each one more painful than the last with the injuries already present there. Roadhog quickly began thinking of ways to avoid this...this  _ pest.  _ It was clear he could keep up with whatever speed Roadhog would be at, and those shotguns hurt like a  _ bitch.  _

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he saw Reaper’s head jerk to look at something over Roadhog’s shoulder, and the spot he was in suddenly burst into flames. Roadhog hoped to god that the fire had managed to kill Reaper, but sure enough he could see a suspiciously dark cloud of smoke snaking its way out of sight. Still, the thing had been scared off—and maybe even wounded—for the time being at least. 

Roadhog turned around to see what had been the source of the fire, and was both surprised and not at all to see Junkrat leaning on a nearby tree for support in the place of his missing leg. 

“You turned it into a bomb?” Roadhog asked, amused. 

“Those idiots thought I couldn’t do it with only one arm!” Junkrat grinned, and shifted his weight onto Roadhog as the junker moved closer to him. “ _ And _ with them constantly watching over my shoulder! Looks like I showed  _ them _ !”

“Nice job, but you think you can make more for when that Reaper comes back?” 

Junkrat’s eyes widened. “What?! How’s he not dead? I blew him up!”

“Turns into smoke.”

“Agh, dammit! Don’t worry Roadie, I’ll figure something out for that bastard!” Junkrat leaned over to see the red dripping out from the dozens of small bullet holes peppered across Roadhog’s back. “Y’alright there, mate?”

“Soon as I can tear that shitstain a new asshole.”

Junkrat cackled. “Alright, good luck on that!” he pushed himself off of Roadhog, wobbling a little until he was fine hopping on one leg. “These ladies probably need my help! That blue techy one’s the only one who seems to know how to work explosions on even a basic level.”

Roadhog raised an eyebrow. “Your leg?”

“Oh, please! You just keep punching robots, and I won’t need the use of my  _ other  _ leg!” Junkrat waved his hand. “Maybe do some more tree throwing action.”

Roadhog nodded, and perked up to see another bastion stumbling out of the darkness. Fucking hell, how many of these  _ were  _ there?!

“Eup, that’s my cue! Good luck Roadie!” And with that, Junkrat hopped away, unable to see the wide grin underneath Roadhog’s mask, as both junkers resumed fighting. 

 

\---

 

Junkrat loved the way his blood was boiling over with excitement as the fight continued. Sure, he was hopping around on one leg the whole time, but he’d been in worse situations back in Australia. The Reaper shit seemed to be keeping his distance from Junkrat, and that left just the simple bots for him to beat. 

Junkrat dug his foot into the mud, pulling on the arm of the dead OR15 in front of him, and stumbled a bit as the thing suddenly popped from the omnic’s shoulder and landed in his arm. 

With the metal bludgeoning weapon now in his hand (he didn’t have enough time to turn it into a bomb, unfortunately), Junkrat turned back to see what he could use it on. 

And explosion of Symmetra’s erupted nearby, and Junkrat reveled in the sudden heat amongst all of the chilly rain. He could see that a few spots of fire had started from all of the rampant pyrotechnics, but fortunately the rain was strong enough and had been going on for long enough to mostly contain their damage. 

Junkrat looked over at Symmetra, and a bastion that seemed to be avoiding her attention and getting a bit too close, and tossed the arm as hard as possible towards the bastion, hitting it across the chest. The arm didn’t damage it that much, but the loud clanging noise made from the impact and the way the bastion stumbled backwards alerted Symmetra of its presence, and she quickly pulled out her gun, a blue orb launching from it and breaking the bastion apart. She briefly glanced over to Junkrat and gave a nod of thanks, to which Junkrat replied with a grin and a nod of his own. 

The feeling of pride was quickly undercut though, as Junkrat suddenly felt a cold, sinking feeling flow in from his back and seep into his skin. It felt like a hand was cutting through his chest and filling it with despair and disease, and it made hiis joints and bones freeze. The only thing he could do was slowly turn his neck around to see the source of the horrible sensation, and was met with a head of red hair slyly grinning at him, metal plates dotted across her face that made her look almost as if she had a second pair of eyebrows. 

_ Oh.  _

_ Four eyebrows. That purple lady wasn’t kidding.  _

Junkrat felt himself chuckle a little at the sight as the cold emptiness quickly moved through his entire body, and his one leg could no longer support his body weight. He stumbled down into the mud, his breathing getting harder and harder as the strange purple wisp coming from the woman’s fingers travelled to his lungs. 

He had only one more moment to see that self-satisfied, devilish smirk on the woman’s face before it suddenly vanished from sight as a white staff suddenly crashed into the side of her head, making her jerk to the side and nearly fall over. 

The moment she was struck, the purple tendril broke off its connection with Junkrat, and he gave a gasp for air at the sudden release from all those horrible sensations she’d been causing. He looked up to see that blonde doctor lady--her name was Mercy, right?--standing over him and tightly gripping her whatsit staff with a furious expression twisting her usually smooth features. 

He glanced back over to see the ginger woman rubbing her temple where Mercy had struck it, blinking over and over to try and regain her senses. Mercy took the opportunity to swing the staff once again like it was a bat, but by then the ginger lady had turned into a puff of smoke, and Mercy’s staff pathetically smacked into the dirt where the Talon agent once was. 

Mercy gave out a growl of frustration before wiping the snarl from her face and turning back to Junkrat. She held out a hand, giving a concerne smile. “Are you alright there?”

Junkrat furrowed his eyebrows, hesitating for a moment before finally deciding to accept the hand. “Was doing fine on my own…” Junkrat muttered, standing back up with the doctor’s help. 

“I know you were,” Mercy’s smile only widened. “But I suppose I just can’t help it, every time I see Moira, I can’t get the thought of bludgeoning her to death out of my mind.”

Junkrat raised his eyebrows. “Hey, aren’t you a pacifist?”

“Just because I have thoughts of revenge doesn’t mean I act on them,” Mercy shrugged. “Unless, of course, she’s attacking a friend.”

Junkrat blinked, having to do a double take. “Friend?”

“You’re a friend of Roadhog, so I suppose I should be friends with you too.”

Mercy held out a hand. “I’m sorry we couldn’t have first met in better circumstances, but I hope we can continue to work together from here on out.”

Junkrat stared at the outstretched hand, almost forgetting for a moment what he was supposed to be doing with it, before offering his own hand, limp with shock. She took and gave it a couple shakes before turning around. “Come on! We need to keep helping the others!”

Junkrat started, suddenly realizing he was dumbly standing still, and the sudden jolt made him lose his balance for a moment. Shaking his head, he growled and turned back around to look for another approaching enemy. 

“Stupid suits,” he muttered. 

He pointedly ignored the part of him that could kind of see how Roadie had gotten so attached to the stupid doctor. 

 

—-

 

Angela was feeling confident again. Not only had she finally seen someone from Overwatch again (not to mention it was Satya—now she just needed to see Amelie again and her day would be complete), but their group was doing surprisingly well, considering the numbers and circumstances. 

Of course, she knew how a situation like this had gone down last time, and as such was keeping her guard up more than normal. It was a good call, as Angela soon heard the rush of wind behind her and a masked figure began to materialize behind her. 

Whirling around, she swung her staff at Reaper, but he managed to dodge the attack, lifting up one of his shotguns and aiming at her. 

Angela immediately jumped behind a nearby tree and pressing up against it, seeing splinters fly past her cheek as the shot broke through the wood behind her. 

Reaper moved closer to get a better angle, and Angela moved again, going behind tree after tree, and she could slowly hear the frustration growing in Reaper’s gravelly voice. 

A part of Angela couldn’t help but giggle internally, at being able to irritate such a deadly opponent. However, her elated mood soon died down as she realized that she could no longer hear Reaper growling nearby, trying to find her. It was all silent. 

The quiet cocking of a gun next to her ear snapped Angela out of her thoughts, and she looked over with a glare at Reaper, standing at her side.  _ I must not have been listening hard enough to hear his teleportation,  _ Angela grimaced. 

“End of the line, doc,” Reaper tilted his head upward in a motion Angela could only guess was satisfaction. 

His clawed finger moved to squeeze the trigger, and a gunshot echoed through the forest. 

Angela stared in shock as Reaper gripped his shoulder in pain, the shotgun in his hand having been dropped, and another shot rang out. 

This time the bullet landed in Reaper’s knee, and as he fell onto the forest floor he dissipated back into smoke, vanishing. Angela hadn’t seen where the bullets had come from, but she recognized the sound of the gun. 

_ Sniper fire.  _

Angela whirled around just in time to see a flash of bright pink armour emerge from the shadows of the trees, carrying a familiar woman with her rifle at her side. Behind them, a troop of police officers emerged, along with Torbjörn in Bastion. 

Angela felt like she could cry at the sight, and she let out a breathless laugh of joy. 

Amelie jumped off from D.va’s mech (which she now noticed was heavily damaged), and rushed towards Angela. Angela let her come to her, the two of them meeting in a tight hug, the sniper squeezing Angela so hard she feared she would pass out. 

Angela grinned, pressing her cheek against Amelie’s shoulder, before the hug finally pulled apart. Angela gripped Amelie by both sides of her face, pullling her into a quick, but energetic kiss. 

“You have impeccable timing,” Angela laughed as the kiss broke apart, and Amelie smiled back. 

“What can I say? I suppose I just missed you.”

“And I did too,” Angela looked behind Amelie, at the rest of the group. “I’m assuming you’re all here to help?”

Amelie furrowed her eyebrows. “Of course we are. Has something gone wrong?”

Angela nodded, a grim expression on her face. “We’ve been attacked by Talon and a whole group of omnics. We’re surviving, but we’re taking a lot of damage too.”

Determination sparkled in Amelie’s eyes. “Alright. Don’t worry, we’ll all help you out, and once this is over we can take care of everything else.”

“I’d very much like that.”

“Oh! And before I forget,” Amelie turned and grabbed something from her waist. Angela’s eyebrows rose in surprise as she saw her old pistol in the sniper’s palm. Then, a grin spread across her face, and she gave a quick peck on Amelie’s cheek as she took the gun. 

“Sometimes you’re just too amazing, sweetie.”

“What can I say? I know how to please.”

 

—-

 

Roadhog was beginning to get exhausted, and he could tell the others were too. The following punch he made on the OR15 was slower, as well as each one after it, and the omnic had managed to get a bad cut on him in the struggle. 

He tossed its mangled body aside, breathing slowly as he pressed a large palm on the wound. Damn, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could go on with this. He glanced over at the rest of the group, seeing how everyone was doing; Junkrat had gotten a new leg and arm constructed in the battle, but they were already partially broken, and the junker’s real body was peppered in bruises, along with a bullet hole in his arm; Symmetra had a pronounced limp from the gunshot wound in her leg, and her movements with the weird light technology were getting more sloppy and limp. He wondered if she’d start messing up in the construction, and the things would blow up in her face. 

Roadhog narrowed his eyes for a moment, feeling as if something was missing, before the shock suddenly hit him.  _ Mercy!  _ Fuck, where  _ was  _ she? 

His mind immediately flashed back to the way she had vanished before, back when Sombra had first attacked them, and how he’d looked back and suddenly she was gone, bleeding out at the feet of an OR15, about to die-

A bullet collided into the back of Roadhog’s shoulder, and he growled as he looked back at the bastion aiming at him. Its gun was making a hard clicking noise, clearly showing how the gun was jammed, and Roadhog quickly turned to deal with it. He couldn’t waste his time with this stupid bot, he needed to find  _ Mercy! _

The bastion stepped towards him, ready to fight, when Roadhog suddenly heard something approach from behind him. Not thinking properly, Roadhog stupidly turned away from the omnic to see the source of the noise, only to see a large, pink blur rocket past him and ram into the bastion, bullets and missiles focused in on it. Roadhog stumbled back a little, his eyes wide, and saw the damaged mecha of D.va standing over the omnic’s corpse. Roadhog had to take a moment to realize  _ holy shit, that’s a member of Overwatch.  _

He was so focused on that fact that he didn’t even see the white shape float down from the top of the mecha until it had landed in the ground in front of him. “Hello Roadhog!” Mercy waved. 

“Y-“ Roadhog blinked, his mind finally catching up to what was going on. “You’re alright?”

“That I am,” Mercy grinned. “And even better, I’ve found the rest of the search party! They’re here to help!”

Mercy gestured at the group before her, and Roadhog saw a familiarly slim sniper wave from above the mech, with the mech itself also giving its own wave. More twigs could be heard breaking a little distance away, and Roadhog looked over to see a group of policemen being lead by Torbjörn and the bot, and he felt worry rise in his chest. 

He was snapped out of his thoughts as he felt a small hand rest on his arm. “Don’t worry,” Mercy’s voice was quiet, and he almost didn’t hear her. “We’ll sort this out. But for now, let’s focus on the current situation, shall we?”

Roadhog glanced around, seeing a few more omnics emerging from around them, and nodded. 

The following battle that ensued was short, pathetically so. With so many more people assisting them, the forest floor was soon covered in scrap metal, and finally no more red lights could be seen emerging from the darkness. 

Mercy stood over an OR15’s body proudly, her hands at her hips, and Roadhog nodded at the sight. “Good job,” he commented. 

“It’s not done yet,” Mercy replied, her voice surprisingly neutral. 

Roadhog watched as the doctor pulled the pistol from the side of her belt, aiming it at a seemingly random direction, and firing a single bullet. 

Roadhog expected to see the thing crash into the tree it was aimed at, and blinked in surprise when it suddenly collided with a purple-shifting body, and in a split second Sombra was sprawled on the grass, her invisibility flickering away. 

At the sight of the hacker, Roadhog’s mood immediately darkened, and he began making steps towards her. 

Sombra didn’t notice his approach, fiddling with a screen in front of her in frustration, likely trying to reactivate the invisibility again. 

It was the perfect opportunity. 

Roadhog quckly raised his fist and brought it down on the hacker like a guillotine, and for once, the hit actually landed, striking her across the back. 

The hacker actually bounced  _ off  _ of the ground from the impact, and Roadhog reveled in the way her eyes bulged and her voice choked. The moment was short lived though, as the hacker soon teleported away once again. 

Still, he’d finally gotten the last hit in. 

Taking a deep breath to slow down his racing heartbeat, Roadhog turned around to face the crowd, containing law enforcement, Overwatch members, and an expectant Mercy. 

Torbjörn turned to look at Mercy with an eyebrow raised. “So, uh, you’ll be taking these two junkers into custody finally?”

Mercy nodded, her posture formal and practiced. “That’s right, Torbjörn. We simply need to contact Winston with the report, and he’ll likely be given permission to legally send out a plane to pick us up.”

“And, uh…” Torbjörn leaned over to whisper with Mercy, but Roadhog could still hear what he was saying. “They’ll be locked up good?”

“They’ll be contained as necessary, Torbjörn. You don’t need to worry.”

Roadhog narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the response, but almost immediately Mercy provided him with a reassuring smile. He took another deep breath.  _ Just trust her for once, you idiot.  _

Junkrat limped up to Roadhog’s side, clearly just as left out of the conversation as Roadhog was. “We’re being picked up? So, uh, this means we’re finally done walking through this miserable forest, right?”

“That’s right, Junkrat,” the sniper strode up to Mercy’s side, hooking a hand around her waist, and the doctor leaned into the touch. “We’ve completed our mission.”

Roadhog saw Mercy’s eyes widen for a moment at the sniper’s sentence, before she suddenly broke into a laugh. It wasn’t one filled with humor, or anything of the like. No, it was a laughter born from an emotion that Roadhog hadn’t truly heard from Mercy ever since they’d first fallen into this damned forest. 

Her voice was filled with relief, and the elated joy that came from it. 

“Yes, that’s right, Ame,” Mercy wiped at her misty eyes, and Symmetra came up to her other side, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “It’s-it’s all...this is all finally over.”

Mercy wrapped an arm around the other two women, holding them close in a tight hug, and as the flames around them all slowly died in the pouring rain, the droplets tapping on the metal like a thousand tiny drums, Roadhog couldn’t help but agree with the doctor. 

 


	25. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took such a while (and for such a short and simple note), I'm not that great at writing endings and I juggled with this chapter a lot! I've got some plans for the future of this series (I have sequels+prequels up the ass), see the notes at the end of the chapter for more!

Angela’s heels clicked down the echoing hallway, running at a faster pace than usual. She had lost track of time in her studies, which was nothing new for her, but this latest development had been especially gripping. She had taken the blueprints of some of her nanomachines and had begun making alterations for them; She now had several different blueprints of the nanomachines drawn out, each with a different prototype of a system that would hopefully block out Sombra’s hacking. The hacker’s previous work with her nanomachines had settled into pale scar tissue on Angela’s stomach, and she didn’t want any more close calls like that. 

_ Thank god that dangerous criminal was there to save my life,  _ she mused to herself. 

She had been hoping to finish up the blueprints for each of the nanomachines so that the 3D printer could begin constructing them while Angela went and took a break. Unfortunately, one of the prototypes had proved to be far more difficult to develop, with unexpected instabilities arising in its design. Angela had worked on it for another few hours and before she knew it, lunch had already started. 

And ended. 

Angela sighed to herself. She’d placed three different alarms to make sure she didn’t miss it, and yet she heard none of them when the time came. 

She hoped the others wouldn’t be too annoyed with her. 

Angela entered into the mostly empty mess hall--dinner was already over--and seeing several different heads turn her way on the other side of the room, seated at their usual table. 

From left to right, she could see Amelie, Satya, Junkrat, and Roadhog, empty plates in front of the first four, while the last was only partially done with his plates of food. 

The table they were seated at had been attached to the wall, as the usual tables had flipped over with Roadhog’s weight on the seat. They had tried having everyone sit on the other side to counteract him, but Junkrat had refused to sit anywhere but Roadhog’s side during meals. It became very clear as to why when the junker finished his meal faster than anyone else and spent the rest of his time sneaking away pieces from Roadhog’s plate. Whether Roadhog was willing to humor him was dependent on the day and his current mood. 

Angela quickly got some food of her own--a modest meal, made mostly from fruits and vegetables, along with a cup of water--and moved to the table. “Sorry I’m late,” she gave a sheepish smile to the group. 

“Again,” Amelie smirked, and Roadhog grunted in agreement. 

“Oh, knock it off Ame,” Satya nudged the sniper with her elbow before looking back up at Angela with a soft smile. “She’s been trying hard lately, I’m sure you had something very interesting keeping you this time.”

“That I did, actually,” Angela picked up a baby carrot and took a bite. “I’ve been developing some nanomachines that can resist Sombra’s hacking. That way they can’t shut down like last time! How does that sound?”

“If it means you’re safer, I’m happy with it,” Satya sighed. 

Angela finished the baby carrot. “I know what the answers are for you two,” she gestured to her two girlfriends, before leaning over to look at the two junkers. “But would either of you want some nanomachine implants? It’s not painful, aside from a shot, and they can allow your body to regenerate somewhat.”

Junkrat grimaced. “Yeahhh no. Don’t know who would want bots floatin’ around in your body, but it’s certainly not me!”

Angela frowned, before looking back at Roadhog. “How about you? I know the healing job they do wouldn’t be nearly as effective as your gas tanks, but it’s better than nothing, right? Especially if you lost your medicine.”

Roadhog looked at her for a second, before diverting his gaze back down to his plate. “Nah,” he grunted. “I’m good.”

Angela nodded, biting into another carrot. “Alright, but come tell me if you change your mind.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t,” Amelie took a sip from her cup.

Angela raised an eyebrow as Amelie slammed the plastic cup back down onto the table with a surprising amount of force. “You’re in a bit of a mood today, huh?”

“Ame is just a little restless, being prohibited from going on missions is all,” Satya explained, rubbing small circles on Amelie’s back. “You know how she is.”

“I can’t help it,” Amelie groaned, resting her head on the table. “I just think of how I could be helping someone right now, or supporting the team, or something, you know? But no, I have to sit here and do nothing, and be  _ useless _ -”

“You’re not useless,” Angela cut in. “You’ve helped a lot before, and I’m sure the team is doing fine now. Remember, you’re the reason our recovery from Eichenwalde was so successful.”

“Yes, although it did give the UN quite the scare,” Satya interjected, still rubbing Amelie’s back. “The only reason we haven’t been shut down again is because of our successful ‘arrest’ of these two-” she nodded at the two junkers. “And the minor punishments for each of the rogue party.”

“I know it makes sense and there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for it all, but still…” Amelie’s face twisted up. “I can’t help but feel so antsy, knowing that I could be helping out right now.”

“Have you tried practicing in the firing range?” Angela raised an eyebrow. 

“I did. For the first five days. And I beat my personal record  _ three times.  _ I don’t know if I can keep practicing my aim until the end of the month, though.”

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out for you, Ame,” Angela comforted her girlfriend as best she could, gently rubbing her shoulder. 

“Oh, is the sniper depressed?” A new voice cut into the conversation. 

All five overwatch members looked over to see a familiar Korean star striding towards their table, chewing on some pink bubblegum. Angela smiled. “I’d say she’s more restless than anything else.”

D.va looked down at Amelie, whose cheek was still sullenly pressed down on the table. “Yeah, I can relate. Boredom is the  _ worst. _ ”

“Well if you relate so much, why do you seem so much more chipper?” Amelie mumbled through her cheek. 

D.va raised her eyebrows, popping a particularly large pink bubble. “Video games. Duh. I’ve been using this probation as an opportunity to hold some more livestreams. I’m not asking you to join  _ those _ ,” D.va quickly added, seeing Angela’s concerned expression. “But you could play with me on our own time. I’ve got plenty of multiplayer games that I’d think you’d enjoy!”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Junkrat raised his hand like a student, waving it around frantically. “D’ya think we could play some of these games? Especially the ones with explosions?”

D.va gave a wry smile. “Course, Junkrat. These are  _ video games  _ we’re talking about. They’ll have  _ lots  _ of explosions.”

Junkrat pumped his arm in victory. 

Satisfied, D.va looked back at the three women. “Anyway, it’s just an offer. Drop by my room sometime, it’s always open, if you want to join me. I need to go now, I was just taking a quick five-minute break from my stream and I need to get back. Later!”

D.va gave a wiggle of her fingers as a goodbye, spinning around and heading out of the mess hall, leaving the five in a somewhat awkward silence. Junkrat seemed to be looking at the three women expectantly, and Amelie gave a deep sigh at the stare. 

“You’re excused, Junkrat. You can go join D.va.”

“Yesss!” the junker exclaimed, hopping out of his seat and punching Roadhog in the back. “C’mon, Roadie! Those digital explosions may not be the real deal, but they’re better than nothing!”

Roadhog glanced at Angela for a second, before grunting and pulling himself off the seat, slowly walking after the hyperactive Junkrat and eventually leaving the room altogether.

“You know, I can’t help but feel sympathy for Winston,” Satya cut through the silence with a slightly playful tone in her voice. “This was likely the last thing he was expecting when he first recalled Overwatch.”

Amelie gave a soft snort, sitting straight once more with a sigh. “That you’re right. Haven’t you had to restrict how much peanut butter Winston is allowed to eat, considering how much he’s been having out of stress?”

Angela let out a deep, exasperated noise. “Did you know I uncovered a stash of his that was hidden above the boards of his ceiling? I found  _ thirty containers  _ in it, and I doubt it’s the only stash that I’ll find.”

The doctor’s two girlfriends laughed at the story. “Yes, but no one can dare defy the frightening Doctor Ziegler, now can they?” Satya teased. 

“Oh  _ please,  _ go tell that to Mccree,” Angela rolled her eyes. 

“Mm, I suppose you’re right there. Speaking of which, he responded to the call recently, right?”

“Yep,” Angela popped the ‘p’. “The sixty-million bounty man himself. Did I mention that Winston’s been stress eating?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Angie,” Amelie rested a hand on the doctor’s back. “You and I both know that most of that money comes from a few billionaires. Who are most likely Talon. And also the UN-look, what I’m saying is that we’ve managed to get the junkers on our side, I’m sure Winston will figure something out. Heck, it should probably be easier.”

“God, I hope so,” Angela sighed. 

“Hey,” Satya spoke up. “Overwatch has already done a lot of good, and the public’s in our favor. Mccree may have been a member of Blackwatch, but not only was he not the leader of the organization, we have perhaps greater reason to invite him. He could very well be the voice we need, someone who’s seen what happened to Blackwatch and can spot the signs.”

“You’re right.” Angela sighed and closed her eyes, before beginning to sit up. “I need to go back and check on my nanomachines.”

Amelie pouted. “Do you have to leave so soon?” 

Angela patted the sniper’s head with a smile. “I’m sorry baby, you just caught me at a bad time. I promise I’ll spend more tomorrow at breakfast.”

“And on time too?” Satya added a little cheekily. 

“Yes, of course,” Angela laughed, taking her plate back to the kitchen before making her way out of the mess hall. 

“Make sure to sleep though, Angie!” Satya called after her. “A healthy body is a healthy mind!”

“Don’t worry!” Angela called back, chuckling. “I’ll get at  _ least  _ three hours tonight!”

She didn’t hear Satya’s reply, as she was already too far down the hallways at that point, but she could only guess it was a noise of exasperation. 

The quiet hum of machines and computers greeted Angela as she opened the door to her office, immediately feeling something off with the area. Things had been pushed aside, and several papers were scattered on the floor. 

Angela worried for a brief moment that someone had ransacked through her office while she was gone, but her growing anxiety quickly vanished as she saw a large, familiar pachimari plush on the shelf above her desk, everything clicking into place. 

_ Would it kill you to be less clumsy with all of this sensitive technology?  _ Angela thought with a mix of annoyance and humor, walking over to her 3D printer. At least the junker didn’t break anything important. The first prototype had already been created, and she soon put in the instructions for the second prototype and turned the machine back on again. 

With the white noise of all the different mechanics occurring in her office, Angela sat down with the nanomachine prototype in its glass container, placing it into a nearby electron microscope to check for errors. As she began setting up the machine, she glanced over at the adorable face of the pachimari, with its battle scar and bright red outfit, and smiled. 

About a week into the future, Angela will find herself working when Satya enters into the room to ask a question. Satya will see the plush above Angela’s desk, with its lumpy stuffing job, its patches of missing fuzz, and the conspicuous stitching job across its face with a look of dissatisfaction that Angela is familiar with. Satya will offer to fix the pachimari to a better state, or better yet, replace it with a new one if she really needed the plush. And Angela will look up from her work to give her girlfriend a soft smile and say no, it‘s already fixed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, for those of you who made it to the very end, I wanna say thank you! I never imagined that when I wrote that first chapter it'd end up being so long. I'm so happy to you all for sticking with me through this! As mentioned in other places on my account, I'm crazy about getting criticism, so if you've spotted issues w the writing from plot to typos, feel free to let me know! I use fanfiction as a way to improve, it'll be greatly appreciated about it, even if you're mean about it :D
> 
> Now, for my plans for the future:   
> I've got like a couple fics in other fandoms I'm planning on putting more focus on, but I'll be returning to Overwatch soon.   
> First, I'll be adding two different oneshots to this series: one of which includes how Mercy and Widowmaker first met/got together in this universe(!), and the other being a little interlude in preparation for my next large project. I won't say much about it, but it does involve hijinks with a certain cowboy!
> 
> I hope yall enjoyed this wild ride as much as I did, thank you to all who kudosed and commented (sorry I didn't reply to all of them, I like to keep them on my dashboard as a pickmeup ^w^)!


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